Ghost of You
by Natalie Rushman
Summary: Thor Odinson. "In my youth I courted war." All things have price. And he will spend the rest of his life learning how to be worthy of the price paid for him. Thor through Ragnarok. Rated T for safety. Probably could have been a K.
1. Chapter 1

_Thor Odinson... You have disobeyed the express command of your King. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful Realms and innocent lives to the horrors of war. You are unworthy of this Realm...unworthy of your title...unworthy of the loved ones you've betrayed. I hereby take from you your powers. In the name of my father...and of his father before...I cast you out!_

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The first thing he saw was darkness. He was surrounded by a blackness so thick he might have caught at it with his hand. The winds raised by the Bifrost tore at his hair and his clothing. What he wouldn't give for Loki's gifts now, to dissipate the storm and show his surroundings.

Bringing a hand up by his eyes to drive off the stinging dust, Thor stumbled, disoriented by the wind and the darkness.

His eyes were pierced by light and he turned his head away.

On the side of his vision, he saw the solidity of the object only just before it hit him.

He felt himself thrown from his feet.

Then, blackness so much deeper than that about him rose up and took him in its arms.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

"I think that was legally your fault."

"Get the first aid kit!"

Then, the second voice again, nearer, "Come on, big guy. Do me a favor and don't be dead."

Groggily, Thor opened his eyes to see a face hovering above his. Pointed, frail. She was both vulnerable and beautiful.

From a little beyond he heard, "Wow. Does he need CPR? 'Cause I totally know CPR."

The woman nearest him raised her head to look at the others who had been with her.

Her eyes had held him strangely. Freed, he shifted and struggled to rise, to remember how it was he had come.

"Where did he come from?"

Finally Thor pressed to his feet and the woman sprang back from him.

"Hammer..."

His father had sent his hammer after him. He must have.

"Yeah, we can tell you're hammered," a female's voice carried after him, "It's pretty obvious."

Gradually, it was coming back to him. The ceremony, Jotunheim, the fight, his Father.

His blood ran hot in his breast.

Cast out. And for what? Protecting his own home?

"Father!" he shouted, flinging his head up to face the sky, "Heimdall! I know you can hear me! Open the bridge!"

There was no answer.

Thor rounded on the ones who had found him. A man and two maidens.

He pointed at the man, "You!" he demanded, "What Realm is this? Alfheim? Nornheim?

"Uh..." one of the maidens drew his attention, "New Mexico?"

She raised a weapon that Thor did not recognize.

"You _dare_ threaten Thor with so puny a –"

A shock pierced his chest and fired all through him.

Darkness blocked out the stars.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

When he woke, there was light.

And a face.

"Hi," the man said, "Just taking a little blood."

Thor smacked the weapon out of the man's hand, "How dare you attack the son of Odin!"

"I need some help!"

Men came and they held him down.

"You are no match for the Mighty –"

His arms were so heavy.

Thor did not understand. None was stronger than he. They should never have been able to best –

Warm darkness lapped at his feet.

Then it swallowed him.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

There was light, again. And a strange smell, one he could not place. It caused a vague feeling of sickness in his gut that any other would have called uneasiness.

The Mighty Thor was not to be made uneasy by so trivial a thing as this stronghold.

They had bound him to the bed on which he lay, and the restraints were strong. He tugged against them to no avail.

"It's not possible," he muttered, giving one last pull.

Then he had a thought.

He relaxed the muscles of his arms and he slipped free.

Climbing free of the bed, Thor laughed to himself. If the creatures wished to make the Mighty Thor their prisoner, they would have to try harder.

The floor was cold to his bare feet. Glancing down he found that his keepers had taken his clothing, replacing it with this…thing. It was distasteful, but it would serve until he found something better.

There was a small window in the door to his cell.

Stealing up close to it, Thor leaned his head against the wood to peer out.

One of the keepers – like the ones who had assaulted him before imprisoning him in this room – was just rounding the far corner. None other was approaching.

Thor tested the nob, and he found that it turned.

Fools. They had trusted too much in their be-spelled restraints. Smiling, Thor stole out of the room and down the hall.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **This is the fourth and final story in my current series. Should be perfect as a read alone, or as a companion to the others.**

 **Sorry, thusfar I haven't gotten past the first movie. This one is different from the other three for 2 reasons. First reason: I'm writing chapter 3, now. Second reason: I have a vague idea of what I want to accomplish with this fic. Neither of those reasons apply to any of my other fics.**

 **So far, the closest answer I can come to for the second reason is that I forget what Thor does and doesn't know. And when you really try to see things as he sees them, it really makes the changes that he goes through as a character much more striking. So, I guess I'm trying to show that. Which is why we're really going through the movie scene by scene.**

 **I haven't seen the movie in a while, but I** _ **did**_ **find the script. Makes for great reading. Here's the link for anybody interested: . It's got all the deleted/extended scenes (which is cool. I'd seen a few of them other places and didn't know where they'd come from) and a lot of goofy dialogue – especially from the Warriors Three, which is always a good time – and some other interesting tidbits. I think it's very worth the read.**

 **Point being, though, that I got the dialogue from that, or from my own head. I will try to remember to point out which is which as we go.**

 **Oh, and song title. This one is by My Chemical Romance. My sister got me into them last spring. She played this song for me, and at the beginning I thought it was a guy singing to his girl, probably before he went to war, and by the end I thought it had changed. Somebody important had died and he wasn't thinking about the girl at all. Then she showed me the video, and she told me that the two in the video, actually** _ **are**_ **brothers.**

 **Anyways, I shall try my damndest to keep up with this daily-update speed, so expect to see an update here every few days.**


	2. Chapter 2

The Mighty Thor was not lost. His sense of direction was unparalleled. It was only that he was distracted. The poison these people had put in his blood had muddled his mind, just as it had momentarily weakened him when he had tried to tear free of his restrains.

He'd been turned around a thousand times in these halls that all looked one like another.

Hearing voices nearing the turn just behind him, Thor secreted himself in one of the many alcoves. He let the girl pass. She was leading others with her, a woman and a man. They were not dressed as the keepers in this place. Thor glanced at his own garb.

He could move much more freely if he was dressed as they were. They would not expect that. He had come in clothing from his home. He would leave in clothing from theirs.

He'd noticed that the people behaved with the most gentleness here toward the wounded, and decided that it must be some sort of Healing House. Though he had yet to decide why they were so intent on keeping him that they would poison him. It mattered little. Their schemes would be of little account once he had Mjolnir again in his possession.

Poking his head out of the alcove he peered down the hall and saw a man, garbed as one of the healers, walking quickly, and _alone_.

Casting about him, Thor settled on the easiest thing and cradled his elbow as though it was hurt. He drew away from the wall and balanced on the balls of his feet, holding his arm. As the man neared, Thor cleared his throat.

That got the man's attention. Glancing up he frowned quickly, "I'm sorry, Sir," the man faltered, "you're not supposed to…Where did you come from? We don't have patients on this –"

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

Giving a quick glance up and down the hall, Thor stepped out into the hallway, leaving the door partially open behind him. The man was unlikely to wake for some time.

The blow would in no way permanently harm even a mortal and the air in this country was so thick and warm that there was no way for him to freeze. And Thor had left him the odd little smock they'd dressed him in to cover himself with when he woke.

Outfitted in the healer's uniform, Thor walked with more freedom in the halls.

The healer had told him something about 'elevator', but Thor hadn't understood the word.

Finally, the man – who had seemed altogether more frightened than Thor thought necessary – had stammered something about a map at the end of the hall.

A map, Thor understood.

The map, when Thor found it, was barely recognizable as such.

He stood before the strange diagram, staring at it with his arms folded across his chest, completely puzzled, when a young healer, a female, drew up next to him.

"Uh," she said, shyly, "Hey,"

Thor looked down and smiled at her, "Well hello."

"Um," she tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear, "Did you, uh, did you need some help? You look a little…lost and I, I didn't remember seeing you here…before…"

"I'm new here." Thor offered.

"I thought so," she nodded, "I would've remembered." Then she blushed, "What're you looking for?"

"I must confess I've been a bit turned around by your halls. They all look _exactly the same_ ,"

"I know, right?" she scoffed, "Okay," she touched the map with one small finger, "We're right here, and that…is…um, the-the staircase right over there by the window…"

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The sun outside of the House was warm and the air heavy in a way Thor was not accustomed to. There was business, though Thor could not see the immediate cause. The light was warm on his face. Looking out, he tried to get his bearings, shake off the last dregs of the poison that slowed his mind.

The only warning of approach he had was a sound of crunching gravel beside him before he'd been flung to the ground _again_.

Two people came around from before the creature that had felled him, "I'm so sorry," the female gasped, "I swear I'm not doing that on purpose!"

After a moment, Thor recognized them as two of the ones whom he had met the night before. Dizzily, he looked from the little pointed female face to the broader one of the man, and then out, beyond them.

"Blue sky," he said, "One sun…This is Earth, isn't it?"

The voice of the other, the maid with the weapon, spoke as her head became suddenly visible out a rear window of the vehicle, "I…think you may have hit him with your car one time too many," she offered.

The girl nearer him, had brown eyes that were remarkably wide and soft. Thor remembered them. She did not respond to her friend.

The hurriedly she looked away from him. She tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Let's get you some clothes," she said.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **Okay, all of this is me, except for that last exchange between Thor and Jane and of course Darcy. That was from the script. The rest of it was inspired by one line from the script where they state that Thor is leaving the hospital in** _ **stolen scrubs**_ **.**

 **That was just too fun to pass up.**

 **Then I started wondering how he got out, and what he thought about it – because clearly he's not up to speed on us** _ **or**_ **our customs – and judging from that line at the end, he didn't even realize he was on Earth.**

 **Anyways, there it is. Let me know what you think of it.**


	3. Chapter 3

During the trip back to the mortal's residence and the ensuing time after, Thor figured that his father had sent him to Midgard…a place the mortals knew as 'Earth'. And, though he would have liked to continue to say it was only the after-effects of the mortal's poison, this new weakness in him was something else entirely.

Odin had taken from him his godhood.

For now, he was mortal.

That explained how the sharp-voiced maiden had felled him last night, and why the mortals had so easily disposed of him in their Healing House.

Earth was not a realm Thor had spent any time on since his childhood. It was not a place one went to prove valor. It was a gentle, washed-back realm. Its people were primitive in the extreme, the least of the creatures of the Nine.

His father truly thought little of him, to send him here.

Thor would make him think again. One way or another. After this whole humiliating adventure was over he could have Loki talk some sense into Father and his coronation would be rescheduled. Hopefully, in time that he could do something before the impending threat from Jotunheim went any further than it already had.

He thought briefly about the Destroyer that had showed itself in the Vault. He had thought the creature no more than a figment of legend, a monster from one of Mother's tales. However ably it had completed its job, Thor decided, he did not think a true king ought need reliance on such things.

If he could not defend his realm with his own strength, if he needed magics, _tricks_ , then what could his kingship be worth?

"This mortal form grows weak," he told the humans as he completed dressing, "it demands sustenance."

The girl – the one with the velvet brown eyes – whom Thor had heard the man call _Jane_ – closed her teeth on what she had been saying. "Okay," she readjusted.

Thor heard her mutter, "Somebody get the mortal a Pop-Tart."

"On it!" the other – _Darcy_ – chirped, "I have _so_ got Pop-Tarts," she said, "You've had Pop-Tarts, right? Do they serve those in shelters?"

"Darcy," the man chided.

"What? I'm just _asking_."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

"What was that?" Jane demanded.

"It was delicious," Thor told her, tipping his head a little toward the mug that lay shattered on the floor. "I want another."

"Then you should just say so!" She looked uneasily at the others who were watching them.

Thor did not understand.

She was uneasy under the scrutiny of others. It was a thing she should become used to the stares if she wished to accompany a Son of Odin. "I just did."

"I mean ask for it," she snapped, "Nicely."

"I," he faltered, "meant no disrespect,"

"All right," she relented, "then no more smashing, deal?"

The order was thinly veiled, but she was so tiny and sure of herself while giving it that the flash of indignation faded into a kind of amusement. He gave a short nod, "You have my word."

She looked at him in that same guarded way he'd noticed before. As though she were unsure whether or not to trust him. "Good."

Men entered from without and they began speaking to the proprietor, discussing whatever trivialities of local life concerned them, and both Jane and Eric Selvig seemed to take immediate interest in it.

Thor was unconcerned, and did not listen more than he had to.

"Oh my God," Darcy said, "This is going on Facebook." She brought out some small thing and held it before her face, "Smile."

She had felled him with a device similarly harmless in its appearance, but Thor sensed no menace from her. He smiled.

"What did the satellite look like?" Selvig asked.

"I don't know nothing about satellites," the man answered, "But it was heavy. Real heavy. Nobody could lift it."

So, Father had sent it.

Thor stood and, leaving his companions he took the man by the front of his shirt and turned him. "Where?"

The mortal was startled, "About twelve miles east of here," he stammered.  
Thor released him and left the place. He went out onto the main path. The sun on Midgard traveled east to west throughout the course of the day, he remembered that. And, as it was yet morning, the sun would be his best mark for east. He followed it down the main road.

The vehicles objected to his passage like unruly horses.

They'd abandoned land-bound vehicles in the City long ago for just such a reason. In the Country one might still find a few. It was quaint, to see how they pressed each other in the roadway, to open his path.

"Where are you going?" Jane ran up behind him.

"Twelve miles east of here."

"Why?"  
"To get what belongs to me."

"So now you own a satellite?" she asked.

"It's not what they say it is."

"Whatever it is," she almost had to run to keep pace with him, "the government seems to think it's theirs. You intend to just walk in there and take it?"

"Yes," he stopped. "If you take me there now, I'll tell you everything you wish to know."

Her eyes were wide and hungry, "Everything?"

She begged after answers like a needy child. He knew she would not be able to resist the offer.

And Loki behaved as though this were difficult.

"All the answers you seek will be yours, once I reclaim Mjolnir," he told her.

"Myeu-muh?" Darcy asked, "What's Myeu-muh?"

Thor did not pay her any mind. He focused on Jane, letting her search his eyes to discern his sincerity. She wanted to believe him. He was sure that she would decide to.

"Jane," Selvig took her arm and pulled her away.

Thor knew that the man did not like him. He would counsel Jane against offering him further help. Glancing up and down the street, Thor assessed his options and decided that it would be no bad thing should she refuse it.

"So," Darcy bounced on her heels, interrupting his thoughts, "What's Myeu-muh?"

Thor glanced down at her. "My hammer."

Her eyes flicked down then back to his as she began to smile, "O-kay," she drawled, "I _get_ it."

Jane had turned from her guardian and come back, her mouth tipped in disappointment, "I'm sorry," she said briskly, "I can't take you."

"I understand," Thor said. "Then this is where we say goodbye."

He took her tiny, frail hand on his, and he kissed it.

"That's," she stammered, "Th-thank you…?"

Straightening, Thor gave her a slight bow, and one to each of her companions, "Jane Foster, Eric Selvig, Darcy…Farewell."

He left them there, standing on the street as he went his own way.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **"Somebody get the mortal a Pop Tart" is a line from the script.**

 **The last few lines of that scene are mine, as is the Darcy/Thor interaction in the second part.**

 **Bonus note:**

 **I kinda like Loki better in the script. You know that scene where Loki tries to talk Heimdal into letting them go to Jotunheim and Heimdal calls his BS? Volstagg ribs him with, "Silver tongue turned to lead?"**

 **In the script Loki's all like, "Get moving before the Bifrost breaks under your girth."**

 **A. Sassy Loki.**

 **B. Nice foreshadowing.**

 **There's a lot more of that in the script. Reading it you get a lot more of a sense how things were** _ **before**_ **, and I would've liked to see more of that.**

… **Only three more days, by the way. Three.** _ **I**_ **can't see it 'till Tuesday, but still.**

 **This. Friday.**

 **Happy Hallowe'en.**


	4. Chapter 4

Thor had been up and down every side street of the tiny, dust-filled town, and he was beginning to wonder if he wouldn't have been better served by going the twelve miles on foot. He could have been mid-way there by this time if he had left as soon as he'd heard.

Mjolinr was _here_. And every moment taxed him. Every moment the Jotuns could be nearing. Even _now_ they might have attacked, and he remained on Midgard, powerless, chasing after what was rightfully his.

He pushed open what might have been the millionth door, this one, perhaps, with some promise as it "I need a horse."

"Sorry, we don't sell horses," the man behind the counter told him, "Just dogs, cats, birds…"

"Then give me one of those large enough to ride."

Behind him, he heard a horn, and he turned.

The mortal girl – Jane – was unaccompanied in her vehicle, just across the street.

"You still want a lift?" she called.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

"I've never done anything like this before!" Jane flushed, her soft eyes snapping with giddy excitement, "Have you ever done anything like this before?"

Her enthusiasm was sweet, like that of a little child. "Many times," he said. Then, at her startled look, "You're brave to do it."

"They just stole my entire life's work," she scowled, "I really don't have anything left to lose."

"But you're clever," he said magnanimously, "Far more clever than anyone else in this Realm."

"This Realm?" she floundered, "Realm?"

"You think me strange."

"Yeah," she laughed, "Yeah I do,"

"Good strange or bad strange?"

She glanced at him, "I'm not quite sure yet." And looking into the softness of her eyes, he couldn't understand why he wanted her to know.

The vehicle lurched and Jane caught the wheel, flushed and nervous. And the space of that was enough to remember. To remember that she was mortal and that he had business here.

"Who are you?" she asked, throwing him half a glance, "Really?"

Thor straightened in the seat beside her, "You'll see soon enough."

"You promised me answers."

He looked at her. Her stubbornness, her ferocity, they were reactions he was unaccustomed to. She was so frail, and yet, so very strong.

"What you seek," he told her, "it's a bridge."

"A bridge?" she pressed, "Like an Einstein-Rosen Bridge?"

"More like a rainbow bridge," he decided.

She looked at him for one moment, calculating, then looked back to the dirt road that they traveled through the dusk. "God, I hope you're not crazy."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The desert grass was rough and hissed against the fabric of his jacket as he crawled on his belly up the ridge. The air that blew down was cold and heavy with the coming storm.

Jane slid next to him, dragging herself forward by her elbows. Struggling to the top she tugged binoculars from her pocket.

"That isn't a satellite crash!" she hissed, "They would have hauled the wreckage away, not built a city around it."

Thor pulled his arms out of his jacket and laid is easily around her shoulders, "You're going to need this."

"Why?"

Thunder rolled low and menacing across the desert, and the wind came cold.

Grinning, Thor looked up at the sky. The storm was his, even as Mjolnir was his. And though this storm was none of his own making, he met it as a bearer of the certainty of his success.

"Stay here," he told Jane, "Once I have Mjolnir, I will return what they stole from you." Looking at her, the hard set of her mouth, the flash beneath the surface of her soft eyes, he knew she was likely to disobey him. "Deal?"

"No!" she said, "Look what's down there. What are you gonna do, just walk in, grab our stuff and walk out?"

"No," he rose, "I'm going to fly out."

And before she could object again, he left her on the crest of the scrubby hill.

The first drops of cold rain made tiny divots in the dust.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

Their defenses were crude and simple. Their guards talented, but mortal, and with none of the training he had spent his whole youth receiving.

Mjolnir was close. He could see it as it glowed in response to him.

His excitement grew, and the storm answered.

The rain came heavy and cold. The dust slid under his feet.

Finally, bleeding, breathless and coated in mud and rain that soaked to his skin, the moment was his. They couldn't stop him from taking back what was his. Mjolnir would be his once again. He would return home. He would be king and the Jotuns would learn to fear him. All Asgard would honor him, and all would be as it should be.

His hand closed on the familiar handle.

All would be as it had been.

It didn't move.

He strained to the extent of his strength.

To no avail.

Thor dropped to his knees in the mud. Rain ran off of him. He didn't feel it.

His father had abandoned him.

He was unworthy.

Odin's words echoed in his head.

 _You are unworthy of this Realm...unworthy of your title...unworthy of the loved ones you've betrayed. I hereby take from you your powers. In the name of my father...and of his father before...I cast you out._

He was unworthy.

And he was cast out.

For good.

When the guards came, he offered no resistance.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **None of this is unique to me**

… **which, as I read it makes this chapter seem particularly pointless…oh well…**

 **Interesting point on timing, though: Jane leaves Thor in town, then goes back, realizes SHIELD's taking all her equipment, realizes there's nothing she can do about it, mopes around for awhile, gets Slevig to agree to reach out to a friend (in the script it's Hank Pym), drives Slevig to the library and agrees to keep the car running – THEN sees Thor and ditches Selvig so she can facilitate Thor's adventure.**

 **And all that time Thor was just pacing around that tiny little town in the desert.**

 **And all that time MUST HAVE PASSED, because they're eating breakfast (or at least lunch) when they hear about the 'satellite', and when Jane's getting all moony starring into Thor's eyes instead of AT THE ROAD she's driving on, the sun is setting. When they get TWELVE MILES OUT, it's dark. True, there's a storm, but that doesn't account for it being that dark, and driving twelve miles doesn't take all day.**

 **Thus, Thor spent almost an entire day (at the very least several hours) looking for transportation, to go twelve miles.**

 **Makes you wonder.**

 **Honestly, I think I would've just walked. Twelve miles is a lot, but it's not THAT much. And he's got god-like-abilities, even if he's not a god. But that's me.**

 **And Selvig! Imagine his face when he comes out of the library.**

 **Also: Thor finds a gun on the ground during the fight scene (that I did not write in detail, because, at some point, one has to make the decision to re-write the entire movie of just skip to the pertinent parts). He knows it's a weapon, but not how to use it, so he throws it at a guy.**

 **I just thought that was really funny.**

 **AND, in the script, Barton never says, "Better call it Coulson, I'm starting to root for this guy." BUT, the first time he sees Thor, as he's aiming his rifle (** _ **not**_ **bow) at him, he DOES say, "Hello Handsome."**

 **Further encouraging my love for all things Barton.**

 **Anyway. 'Ragnarok' comes out today.**

 **I'm not freaking out. Not at all. I'm totally fine.**


	5. Chapter 5

"It's not easy to do what you did," the little man continued. He'd been going on for some time.

Thor starred at the ground, and he said nothing. The room was blank and white. It offered no distraction.

"You made these highly trained professionals look like a bunch of mall cops. That's hurtful."

He was bound to the chair on which he sat. The chair was the one piece of furniture in the room. In all his life he had never felt more alone.

"In my experience, it takes someone who's received similar training todo what you did to them," the little man kept on. "Would you like to tell me where you received your training? Pakistan?" he offered, "Chechnya? Afghanistan?"

Thor said nothing. He barely listened.

Over and over again, he heard his father's voice.

 _…I cast you out…You are unworthy…unworthy…_

"You strike me more as the soldier of fortune type. What was it, South Africa?Certain groups pay well for a good mercenary. Who are you?"

Thor said nothing. He only looked up at the little man.

The man stood silent for one long moment, scrutinizing him. Then he shifted, looking at a thing he'd plucked from his belt.

"One way or another, we find out what we want to know," he said. "We're good at that."

Then the man had left the room.

Thor lowered his head.

And there was a shift in the air.

Glancing up, Thor's heart leapt in his breast, "Loki? What are you doing here?"

"I had to see you," Loki said.

"What's happened?" Thor pressed, "Tell me! Is it Jotunheim? Let me explain to Father –"

Loki interrupted him."Father is dead."

For a moment, Thor could do nothing. He only looked at his brother.

Dead? Father? It couldn't…

Sudden tears sprang up in his eyes,"…What?"

"Your banishment," Loki explained calmly, "the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear."

Abruptly Thor realized what Loki was saying.

 _He_ , himself, had done this.

"You mustn't blame yourself," Loki said. He sensed what Thor was thinking. He'd always had that gift. "I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen."

Thor barely heard him.

"It was cruel to put the hammer within your reach, knowing you could never lift it."

Knowing you could never come home. Knowing you would have to remain mortal forever. Knowing you would be excluded from everyone and everything you hold dear for the rest of time, with no chance of changing your fate, and always the tantalizing chance that perhaps that might change. And always the cold certainty that it would not.

Father was dead.

He'd killed him.

And he himself was cast out.

He'd never wanted any of this. He'd never thought that any of this could come from what he'd done. He'd only thought…

But he hadn't thought. Not really. And wasn't that what Father had told him, so many times?

"The burden of the throne has fallen to me now," Loki said.

Thor looked up, tears wet on his face, "Can I come home?"

Loki's expression never changed, "The truce with Jotunheim is conditional upon your exile."

"But couldn't we find a way to –"

"And," Loki interrupted him, "Mother," he said, "has forbidden your return."

Catching his breath, Thor lowered his head.

If it was as Mother would have it, then he could not plead.

He recalled her as he had last seen her, the fond disapproval in her smile when she looked at him as he entered the Great Hall for what was to have been his coronation. If _she_ would not have him return home…

Loki's voice broke through his thoughts again,"This is goodbye, Brother," he said, "I'm so sorry."

If she would not have him…and Loki had come to tell him…

Loki had always been his dearest friend. Loki's situation was no better than his own.

"No," Thor lifted his head, " _I'm_ sorry. Loki..." he raised his head, "thank you for coming here."

For one moment, Loki only looked at him. Then he said, "Farewell."

And, in his way, he vanished.

"Goodbye," Thor managed.

"Good-bye?" The little agent smirked, "I just got back."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

Without family, without friends, without a _home_ , what was he? He had no purpose, he had no worth. He would never be allowed back into his home. Father was dead and Mother had forbidden his return.

The Mighty Thor had nothing left.

And he could not remember a time when he had not had something to fall back on.

He didn't know what to do.

He supposed he would let the mortals have their way with him. He would be silent and would accept what punishments they offered as a warrior ought. He still had that, whatever else he'd lost. He had brought all this upon himself. Upon his family.

Then a voice shattered through to his thoughts, shouldering its way brashly into his awareness.

"Donny, Donny, Donny!" It said. "There you are!"

Utterly puzzled, Thor looked at the man. Dr. Eric Selvig. This man had disliked him from the start, but none of that showed on his face. Quite the opposite. His face was that of a man who had just located a dear friend.

Thor did not understand.

"It's going to be all right, my friend," Selvig helped him to his feet, "Come on, I'm taking you home."

Wordlessly, Thor allowed himself to be led by the man out of the compound and into the damp air of the night. The guards scurried about, cleaning up and repairing the damage he had done them.

Thor could not begin to comprehend what Selvig must have done to get him out.

On a table, Thor noticed a notebook, and he recognized it as the one that had been in Jane's possession. He slid out his hand and pocketed the slim volume.

"Dr. Selvig!" came a quick shout from behind them.

Thor felt Eric's hand tighten on his arm.

"Just keep him away from the bars." Agent Coulson counseled.

Selvig laughed, "I will!"

"Where are we going?" Thor asked him.

Selvig's face dropped, "To get a drink."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

"Seems Darcy's a terrible intern," Selvig told him, "but a talented hacker."

The bar sounded like any number of taverns Thor had frequented. People laughed and they talked and their music blared too loudly for the small space in which it was captured.

The barkeep set drinks before them.

Thor still did not understand.

"Thank you," he said, slowly, "for what you've done."

"Don't thank me," Selvig answered curtly, "I only did it for Jane. She's like a daughter to me. Her father and taught at University together," he explained. "He was a good man, but he never listened."

"Neither did I," Thor admitted.

Turning the better to gauge him Selvig said, "I don't know if you're delusional, and I don't care. I just care about her."

Thor looked at him in some surprise.

"I've seen the way she looks at you."

"I swear to you," Thor said, "I mean honorably by her,"

"Good." Selvig answered. "If that's the case, then I'll buy another round, and you'll leave town tonight."

For a moment, Thor thought of that. He thought of all of Midgard spread out before him. Only two days ago he would have laughed at the poor sport of such an idea. Now it seemed vast beyond imagining. Vast, and fearful in its vastness.

Meeting Selvig's eyes, he nodded his head.

Swallowing the drink, Thor looked at the lights suspended in the ceiling. "I had it all backwards," he said. "I had it all wrong."

Selvig was watching him. The man drew a breath, answering more gently than before, "It's not a bad thing, finding out that you don't have all the answers," his mouth tipped wryly. "That's when you start asking the right questions."

Thor looked at him, "For the first time in my life," he admitted, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

"Anyone who's ever going to find their way in this world has to start by admitting they don't knowwhere the hell they are."

Thor nodded his head, more comforted by the man's words than he knew how to express.

"Hey," a slurred voice came from behind him. "I know you, man..."

Thor turned to see one of the men that had been with them at the inn that morning. Only that morning. When he had heard where Mjolnir was to be located.

The man was large and more deeply intoxicated than many present. "You were in the diner with that hot girl."

Thor recalled many a night where conversation had begun thusly. Reflexively, his hand opened and closed in a tight fist, readying for the blows he sensed were sure to come.

"I wouldn't mind her doing a little research on me," the man laughed.

Below the bar, Thor's hand tightened.

But that was all behind him. It was his warmongering that had led him here and he would follow it no longer.

"I have no quarrel with you," he said stiffly. Letting go his breath, he let his hand fall open on his lap. "But the woman of whom you speak is a lady," he raised his head to meet the eyes of the drunkard, "You ought to be more respectful."

The man's face reddened. "And you should shut the hell up, Princess," he spat.

Selvig looked at Thor, apprehension clear on his face. It was an expression Thor recognized. And it was his folly that he had never answered to its cautions before now.

"I will not fight him," he told Selvig softly.

"Then it'll be easy to kick your ass!" the man shouted.

Putting down his tankard Selvig stood, coming between Thor and the drunkard, raising his hands, "Gentlemen, please," he said, "Let's keep our heads."

Then jerking forward he cracked his own head against the drunkard's and sent the man toppling backward onto the floor.

Thor blinked in surprise, drawing a little back. In spite of himself, he smiled.

Heated in the moment, Selvig put out his arm and caught up his tankard. He took the rest in a quick drink and flung the glass to the ground.

"Another!" he shouted.

And Thor laughed.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The wind blew cool off the desert, damp from the storm that had passed, and the stars were brighter than he had thought Earth's stars could be. There was no hint in the sky of the dawn that was yet to come.

But for the moment, Thor was content.

He didn't know what he would do, but he did not make himself think of it.

Jane murmured in her sleep beside him. She was leaning against him and her weight was a welcome pressure against his side.

After escorting her guardian to their shared residence, they had gone together to the roof. He'd built a fire to warm them, and she'd brought blankets so that they could talk.

He'd promised her answers. He'd promised her her equipment.

He gave her the notebook, ashamed that it was all he might offer her.

She took it in her hands, hope and excitement bare on her little face.

But then she became discouraged, not seeing the nearness of the goal before her and he told her how very close she was. He gave her the answers she had sought.

He'd spoken, and the joy of being able to truly speak to another was nearly like that he'd felt fighting beside Eric Selvig at the tavern.

He hadn't expected to feel that again.

And now twice.

Thor glanced down at Jane as she slept. Her face was still and beautiful in the moonlight. He thought of the brown eyes that had so captivated him.

Perhaps he might stay here.

Perhaps, he might have family after all.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **Script notes: Thor doesn't just look up and see Loki in the interrogation room. Loki pops in and is all like, "I thought he'd never leave."**

 **Then, instead of being morbid and quiet, when Thor thanks him for coming, he's smooth af and says, "Nothing could have stopped me."**

 **I kinda like what they did in the movie better this time, because it showcases how damaged Loki is in this scene. It looks more like he's on 'auto-pilot' and that a touch poorly. Hiddleston did a really good – if subtle – job of showing Loki gradually losing control throughout the movie, and I like where he went in this scene. But there it is.**

 **Coulson also suspects that Thor might be a mercenary in the employment of HYDRA, which I thought was fun.**

 **The bar fight was** _ **not**_ **a scene I invented, all of that was in the script, and I just LOVED the explanation for "We drank, we fought, he made his ancestors proud."**

 **This exercise is really reminding me what a sweet, pain-in-the-ass teddybear Thor really is. I really can't blame Loki for being the way he is about him. I mean** _ **damn**_ **…**


	6. Chapter 6

Some time in the very first dawn of the morning Thor must have fallen asleep, because he was woken to the bite of cool wind as Jane sat up beside him.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Her voice cracked a little, and her hair was mussed from sleep.

Groggily, Thor shook his head, helping her free of the blankets and from her chair, "I have no idea."

Standing, Jane put her arms above her head and stretched, "Come on," she yawned, adjusting the oversized shirt she wore, "I'm starving."

Following her down the ladder from the roof, Thor raised his head and he saw Eric Selvig exiting the trailer.

"Morning Eric," Jane said.

Eric was much the worse for the wear he'd received last night. He had one hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun as it rose. "Nnmm," he answered, "I need some coffee."

Thor closed the distance between them and opened the door.

Eric stopped and looked at him for one moment, as though suspicious. Then, "Thank you," he said.

"You're very welcome."

Jane smiled at him as she came through, and Thor let the door shut behind them.

"Hey," Darcy greeted them from one side of the room, "Where were you guys last night? I had to sleep all by myself."

"We were on the roof, Darcy," Jane answered.

Darcy's eyebrows rose as she flicked her glance from Jane to Thor and back again. "Both of you?" she asked.

"It wasn't –"

Darcy was nodding her head with a satisfied smirk on her face, "You don't need to tell me," she said, "I see how it is." Winking at Thor, she made some gesture with her hand where her thumb was pointed in the air. Thor assumed it had to be some sort of positive gesture.

"Never mind," Jane muttered. She wouldn't lift her head but Thor could see how she blushed and he smiled at her.

"Morning Eric," Darcy chirped.

"Would you keep it down," Eric complained.

"I can see _you_ had fun last night. _All_ of you," Darcy pouted. "And I just had to sit here, all by myself, without even my _iPod_ …"

"Will you shut up about your iPod?" Jane asked.

"Fine," Darcy crossed her ankles demurely and leaned forward on the table, drawing her mug closer to her chest. "I made coffee," she offered.

Jane went up on her tiptoes to reach the top shelf of one of the cupboards in the wall. Thor reached out and held the door.

"Here," she said, "you take these to the counter over there."

He took the mugs from her. When he glanced at her she had stopped and she was looking at him in something like wonder. "Thanks," she said.

Thor smiled at her.

"Guys," Darcy cut in.

Jane jumped.

"Breakfast isn't gonna make itself."

"Yeah," Jane muttered, "I'll get right on that."

Still smiling, Thor took the mugs to the place Jane had indicated.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

He had been a prince of Asgard. He knew how to feed himself should he find himself in the wild. He knew how to cook over a fire, not that he had done so in many years. There were always others capable and willing to do it for him.

There had always been others capable and willing to do most everything for him.

And he had come to take it for granted that they would.

He had been an unpardonable fool.

Jane was patient with him. She gave him simple instructions and she smiled at him.

They ate their breakfast in companionable silence, and Thor felt more that he belonged then he had for some time. He was awake and aware of the world in a way that was new and clean and better. A second start.

A better start.

Eric sat with his head back and nursed his drink.

Jane was pouring through the handwritten scrawl of her notebook.

Emptying his mug, Thor looked at it, then at Darcy, who was watching him with some interest. "May I have this?" he asked.

She shrugged, "Sure."

"Thank you," Thor answered. He glanced at Jane who still did not notice, "Excuse me a moment."

Going out, Thor looked up and down the street. The sun was already climbing, and the wind that blew held no memory of the night's storm.

It took him only a few moments to find the place.

Crossing the empty street, Thor approached the place where they had had breakfast the day before.

The proprietor stood before her shop, sweeping the dust off of the front steps.

Hearing him approach, she looked up, and her face creased with suspicion.

Thor lifted the mug. "To replace the one I broke," he offered it to her, "Please forgive my behavior."

Never taking her eyes from him, she tipped her head. "Okay," she said slowly, "Thank you."

"If I may," Thor said, "I'd like to come back for more of your 'coffee,'"

Holding the mug in one hand, she nodded her head, "Anytime," she smiled.

Smiling back at her, Thor turned and went back the way he'd come.

By the time Thor returned, Darcy, Jane and Eric had risen and they had begun clearing up the table. Thor couldn't let them do it alone. He slipped in and Darcy handed him a plate.

They were nearly completed with their task when there came a thump on the glass doors.

Thor turned.

"Found you!" Volstagg beamed.

And Thor's heart dropped.

A plate fell from Jane's hands and shattered against the floor.

"My friends!" Thor exclaimed.

Volstagg, Fandral, Hogun and Sif stepped through the glass doors and Thor crossed the room to greet them.

"My friends," Thor clapped a hand to Volstagg's broad shoulder, "I've never been happier to see anyone. But you should have not come."

Fandral looked at him strangely, "We're here to take you home."

"You know I can't. My father is," Thor's face fell, "dead, because of me. I must remain in exile."

The Warriors Three and Sif looked, one from another.

Then Sif looked at him, "Thor," she said, "your father still lives."

Thor looked at her, stunned, for one moment.

That meant…Then Loki had…In what other ways had Loki deceived him?

Turning to the door, Thor saw the clouds forming in the distance and he knew them for what they were.

Sif and the Warriors followed him out. Jane, Darcy and Eric came behind them.

"Was somebody else coming?" Darcy asked.

Thor exchanged looks with his friends.

They strained their eyes, looking into the billowing dust that rose from the impact.

When the dust cleared, they saw fire.

And, silhouetted by the fire behind it, they saw a huge shape making its way toward them across the desert.

Thor watched as his friends snapped into movement, certain of what it was they had to do in this moment. He turned to look behind him and he saw Jane, Darcy and Eric. They were watching them, confused and frightened.

Thor put his hand on Jane's shoulder, "Leave this town now," he said. "Get yourself and your friends to safety."

Her eyes flicked back and forth across his face, "What about you?"

"I must stay and fight,"

Volstagg and Fandral turned to face him.

"I'm still a warrior," Thor told them, "and I will fight by your side."

Volstagg spluttered, "But you're a mortal now. You'll get yourself killed!"

"Or one of us, trying to protect you," Fandral pointed out.

"The best thing you can do," Sif unfolded her double spear, "is get the mortals to safety and leave the battle to us."

Thor looked at the people who had begun going out, going about their business, living their lives, oblivious of the imminent danger to them.

"You're right," he told Sif.

Sif looked at him, her grey eyes wide and her hands still, and she said nothing.

Thor turned from her to his Midgardian friends, "Help me clear the streets," he said. "I'll let none of these people die this day."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The Destroyer was within the town. It blasted the fronts from the stores and the people fled in terror.

"My friends fight bravely," Thor said, "but they won't be able to hold it back much longer."

Jane didn't answer, but her face creased with worry.

Darcy continued to load the small animals from the pet shop onto the back of a truck.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The Destroyer attacked the Warriors Three and Sif and scattered them. Thor got to his feet but was flung back onto the ground as the front of the building where they had only just eaten breakfast burst into flame.

Rising, Thor helped Jane to her feet.

Selvig was not rising. Metal protruded from his abdomen.

"Eric!"

Jane ran to him.

Thor followed her, calculating quickly.

"Go!" Selvig gasped, "Leave me!"

Casting about, Thor's eyes fell on a stone. A healing stone.

Then another.

One of his friends must have brought them from Asgard and dropped them when they were thrown. Diving through the flaming wreckage, Thor caught a handful of them up in his hand.

"What are you doing?" Jane asked, "What is that?"

Thor crushed the glowing stone to powder in his hand and he dropped it into Selvig's wound. The metal dissolved under the stone's powder, and the wound knit itself whole.

Jane gasped and Selvig coughed, coming back to himself.

Thor raised his head and saw the Warriors and Sif, they were injured, scattered.

He left Jane and went to Sif, he lifted her from the ground and led her, stumbling across the wreckage on the ground out of the Destroyer's sight behind a car.

"Go, while you can," he told her.

"But the others…"

"You can't help them now," he told her. "Your job is to survive."

Gasping, she pressed a hand to her ribs and winced. "No!" she said, "I will die a warrior's death. Tales will be told of this day."

Thor took the shield from her hand and he laid it aside. "Live," he said, "and tell them yourself."

Her grey eyes searched his, and, finally, she nodded her head.

Looking first one way, then the other, Thor dashed out from behind the car. Volstagg lay senseless on the ground. Hogan and Fandral were only just beginning to rouse themselves.

Thor tried to life Volstagg, but he could not. He left him and ran to Fandral.

"Go," he pulled him to his feet, "Get him to safety."

"We can fight," Fandral protested.

"But not win," Thor told him. "Move Volstagg or he'll die!"

Thor looked them over, and he smiled.

"Don't worry, my friends," he said. "I have a plan."

Fandral nodded his head. He and Hogan lifted Volstagg from the ground.

With them gone, Thor turned to face the Destroyer.

Sif's shield fell from his hand. It clattered against the ground.

"Brother," he said, "however I have wronged you, whatever I have done that has led you to do this, I am truly sorry. But these people are innocent, taking their lives will gain you nothing," he raised his eyes, "So take mine, and end this."

The Destroyer looked at him with its blank face.

It turned, almost as though to turn away.

With a lightning fast movement, it snapped back.

Thor felt pain like a white flash.

The Destroyer had struck him and he'd flown backwards and hit the ground.

He tasted blood on the back of his throat.

Blinking back the blackness that wanted to rush over him, he saw Jane's face.

"It's over," he said.

"No," she sobbed, "No, it's not over, it's not over."

"You're safe," he breathed, "So it's over."

She nodded her head.

And the blackness claimed him.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

Blackness.

Then it cracked white and gushing.

He stood and he felt the rush of his godhood restored.

He was the Mighty Thor.

And he would end this threat upon his friends and upon this innocent realm.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The Bifrost's energy roared around him, enveloping him and drawing him shooting up to his home.

Jane's kiss lingered on his lips.

 _Whatever fate lies before me_ , he thought, _you are a part of it._

Heimdal lay slumped over the console in the Observatory.

"Get him to the healers!" Thor shouted. Turning to the City, Thor felt the anger flare in his breast. "Leave my brother to me."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **The first scene is mine. It was based on the script, which shows Thor and Jane coming down from the roof and meeting Selvig as he exits the trailer. Eric just looks at them and says, "I need coffee." So I ran with that.**

 **Him returning the mug was a deleted scene I saw (also in the script…obviously), and I thought it was a cute moment for him. It showed a lot of character development. I wanted it in the movie, so I put it in here.**

 **Anything later throughout the chapter that diverges from the movie was either cut directly from the script, or was my re-interpretation of the script. Originally it seems that the Warriors Three and Sif were beat pretty badly. I like that better.**

 **Last but not least, the thought I gave him ('whatever fate lies before me…' etc.) was his parting line to Jane in the script. I liked how the movie parted them, so I left that.**

 **I'm going to see the movie today! I'm so excited. Heard a lot of mixed feedback. Can't wait to find out what I think of all of it ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

He'd fought his brother.

Not his brother.

He didn't know what he thought anymore.

Father had told him it was over.

And it was.

More, he thought, than Odin knew.

He recalled Loki as he had been, before.

He mourned that brother, not understanding the madness that had taken him.

He had given up so much in his attempt to save Jotunheim.

Jotunheim. Of all places.

But what Loki had attempted could not be allowed.

Thor spoke to his father, some days after, when he felt he could bear it. He had sat where Father directed him to in his study, with his elbows resting on his knees, and he had asked, slowly – afraid of what he might hear but knowing he must ask it – what had happened while he was away.

Odin had considered a long while. Then he nodded his head.

He rose from his seat by the window. His body was silhouetted black against the pained glass. And he told Thor everything Jotunheim had revealed. Everything his own attack on that realm had unleashed.

And when he'd understood it, he'd caught his breath. He dropped his head into the palm of one hand to hide the tears.

Father came up then, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You have learned from your folly," he said. "And that is as well as it can be."

Odin's hand tightened on his shoulder. His voice was heavy with grief of his own. "It is over now."

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

The proper ceremonies were held. A vessel, bearing a cunning magic of Loki's body was sent out to the stars.

Thor could not look at it.

Nothing of that last day was spoken of. The AllFather himself had forbidden it.

Thor was grateful.

His friends did not understand, he could sense that by their curious stares. But they would not argue the AllFather's decree. And Thor had not the will to speak to them.

He did not attend the feast which followed.

Instead he went out alone into the woods, to walk amid the trees, and see the stars.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

"Thor!"  
Turning from the wall along which he walked, Thor stopped. "Lady Sif," he said.

The sun flashed on her armor. Thor noticed as though he hadn't before that it felt warm on his face.

"You," she faltered, "you are well?"

He did not understand. It was an odd question, and unlike her.

He offered a small smile. "Well as I might be," he said.

Impetuously, she shot out a hand and took his wrist, "Do not grieve too long, Thor," she said. "His love was always a lie."

Thor looked at her for one long moment before he took his hand from her. "Not always," he told her.

When he turned to walk on, she did not follow him.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

A feast was thrown to celebrate his return, after what time seemed to whomever took it upon themselves to plan such things thought appropriate. It was not such a feast as might have been celebrated in a time without mourning.

But even so, Thor did not attend.

He skirted about the edge of the light. He went to stand without, in the cool air, to look out over the City.

"You'll be a wise king," Odin said.

Thor half-turned to see him, letting his arms fall to the balcony railing before him. "There will never be a wiser king than you," he said, "or a better father."

Odin said nothing.

Thor's heart felt restless in his breast.

He remembered his brother as Loki had been.

He thought of Jane's smile, and the soft luminance of her eyes.

Looking out over the City he drew a long breath. "I have much to learn," he said. "I know that now. But some day, perhaps, I will make you proud."

Odin laid a hand on his shoulder. "You've already made me proud."

Thor remained on the balcony after his father had left him, drawing what little comfort he could from the words.

He was spent with weariness and confusion, and all that was left him was a kind of restless detachment that he knew not how to soothe.

He went out to the edge of the Bifrost and stood beside Heimdal.

"Can you see her?" he asked.

"Yes," Heimdal answered him.

"How is she?"

"She seeks for you."

And Thor allowed himself a smile.


	8. Chapter 8

Time fled him.

Days passed, Thor knew not how. He busied himself as he might, re-learning the ways of the palace and of his life therein.

It sickened him.

The petty fights. The gaudy riches. The politics.

It boggled him, in those first days, to think that he had ever wanted this.

He often remembered those few, precious, misguided hours he had spent on Midgard. Earth. And the friends he had left behind him there.

He thought often of Jane. The softness of her hazel eyes. The strength of her convictions and her curiosity. He remembered Eric's grudging fondness, and Darcy's inane babble. But it was Jane, chiefly, that he remembered. He envied the simplicity of her world. And more than that, he envied her belief in her place within that world. She knew who she was and what it was she was meant to do.

He recalled days when he, also, had known such things.

Fandral's banter and Volstagg's laughing ricocheted in his skull until his head ached and he could no longer tolerate their company. He remembered Loki's low voice, and his answers to their incessant joking. Loki had always been able to make him laugh. Sif worried after him, and her worry was oppressive, though she did not speak her thoughts to him after that first day. Hogun's silence was no comfort.

Thor often found himself alone.

He had never loved solitude, in his youth. He'd often mocked Loki for his courtship of it. But now he thought he better understood.

Now that it was too late.

He visited Heimdall, asking after Jane, and the repair that was slowly working its way along the Bifrost. He regretted that he had been driven to destroy it. He had promised Jane that he would return. And at the time, it had seemed so simple a promise. Everything had gone wrong, after that. After his return home.

He forgot, sometimes, what it was that had led to his destruction of the bridge. If he had not crushed the bridge, Loki would not have fallen. He knew, in his mind, that such had been necessary. But his heart pled that there must have been another way. He forgot, sometimes, Loki's ravings, and in the place of the man he had become, Thor only saw the boy he had been.

More, and more often as the time passed, he only could think of his brother. He could not approach the bridge without images of Loki's eyes, in that moment when Thor had known what it was he would next do, flashing before him.

He dreamed Loki's fall.

The third time it happened, he left his room a wreck and went out, his skin damp with sweat, to the islands, where it was dark and there was only the sound of the water on the rocks.

When he returned, it was to receive summons from his father.

Odin did not mention his absence or the state of his chambers – which undoubtedly he must by then have known. There was an uprising a day's ride from the palace. The garrison stationed there was all but overrun. Odin would have him take as many men as he would, and go to their aid.

Wearily, Thor complied. It was for the best, to be busy. But his heart was not in it.

He supposed that that would have to repair itself, in time.

But he couldn't shake the certainty that if he had only done differently, his brother would still walk among the living.


	9. Chapter 9

Alive.

His father had continued speaking, but Thor did not comprehend the words.

His brother. Alive.

Gripping the ledge of the balcony, Thor drew a breath. He felt sick and dizzy, and tears pricked the backs of his eyes.

Raising his head he looked at his father, "Alive?" he asked.

"Yes," Odin told him.

The breath that rushed in his lungs, shook.

"Have you heard nothing else of what I've said?"

Swallowing thickly, starring at the back of his hands, seeing Loki's eyes the moment before he'd let go, Thor shook his head.

Distant thunder rumbled along the hills.

Gathering himself, Thor looked up, and he turned to face his father. "Where?" he asked.

"We know not the exact place."

"We?"

"Your mother. It was she who first found him."

"But he is alive."

"He is alive."

Thor settled his fists on the ledge. He looked out over the rooves of the city. The wind brushed back his hair. "I will go to him."

"How will you go?"

Thor let his head hang down. "I know not," he admitted. "But," he looked, almost pleadingly, to his father, "I do know that I must go. He is alive. Norns know what horrors he has faced alone in the Void."

"It is true, my son," Odin began.

"I cannot wait."

"A year already Loki has been gone."

"Then every hour is yet more precious."

"He has an army."

Thor stilled, and Thor looked at him.

"A mercenary race from among the depths and debris without the Nine. They are called the Chitauri."

"What," Thor faltered, his brows drawn down, utterly perplexed and ragged, "what need has Loki for an army?"

"I speak only what your mother has told to me. Heimdall watches. He will tell us the moment Loki strikes."

"We cannot locate where it was she found him?"

"It is without my sight. And to open that way to the Watchman's eyes would be to open ourselves to countless horrors."

Closing his fists, Thor allowed that there was nothing more that could be done.

"I would be told," he said gruffly, "the _moment_ such news arrives."

Calling Mjolnir to his hand, Thor flung himself from the edge of the balcony.

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

 **Just as a quick note: flipping between Thor and Loki as narrators is really funny. Thor has NO interior dialogue.**


	10. Chapter 10

His head bowed, his steps heavy, Thor went to his mother.

He found her in the first place where he sought her, her garden.

She stood by a tall, flowering tree, tending to a blossom that dipped down into her hand. It was a tree in which he had his brother had often played, with its low, stooping bows and crouched trunk.

"So," he said, "He's alive."

Her smile was touched with sadness. "Your father told you, then?"

Thor rested his hand on the wall that stood beside him.

"An army?" he asked her, finally.

A shadow passed over her face, "Yes," she said softly, "An army. And your brother stood at its head."

"Mother, what use could Loki have for an army?"

"I saw nothing more. That they are called the 'Chitauri' is all I know."

"You," Thor's hand curled to a fist, and he scraped his knuckles against the stone. "You did not see him at the end," he said. "How he fought…his _face_ ,"

Tears pressed his eyes and he turned his head away.

"Thor,"

Her hand lighted feather-soft on his arm.

"When he comes," he told her, "he will come for me. He meant my end on Midgard, and he will do his best to bring it about now."

"He has always loved you."

"It will not stop him."

She had turned to face him and she lifted her arms and put them about his neck.

Gently, he folded his arms about her thin waist.

"You are my son," she said. "At the very least he will remember that."

Laughing softly he let her move back. She held him by his shoulders, looking at him as he held about her waist. "You must promise me," she said.

"Promise?"

"Promise me you will give him a chance."

"Mother?"

Her eyes fell, "Little do we know of what your brother has undergone," she raised her eyes, "Be slow to trust what he says Thor. You know how he is."

She cupped his cheek with one hand. Her mouth tipped in a half-smile.

He faltered. "I know."

"He loves you," she said, "dearly as his own heart. It is only that he forgets, sometimes," tears gathered in her eyes and she took a shuddering breath. She moved her hand, taking the other side of his face. "Don't let him remember after it's too late."

His hand moved to her elbow. "I," tears pricked behind his eyes and he swallowed thickly, "I won't."

"Bring him back to me," she said.

"I swear it, Mother."

"Thor," she said. Tears spilled down her face, even as she smiled at him. She brought his head down that she might kiss his brow, "I've missed you."

Blinking the tears from his own eyes, he embraced her.

* * *

 **Merry Christmas to all!**


	11. Chapter 11

Midgard.

Loki had chosen Midgard as the place from which to launch his attack.

He had come alone, leaving behind him in the reaches of the Void his Chitauri army. He had come alone to a SHIELD base, and he had taken from them the Tesseract.

That presented a problem of its own. Thor was not fond of SHIELD. First they had taken from Jane her work, and now he found they had been holding a lost treasure, long missing from Asgard's vaults. Who knows how many else there were that they had driven to their will and how many others there were from whom they had stolen fortune and home, all in their struggle for preeminence and the illusion of safety in this most vulnerable of the realms.

And in their tampering with matters so far from their ability to control, they had opened themselves to Loki's attack.

For eons the Tesseract had lain dormant, but SHIELD had awakened it, so that it could be sensed, and found.

Loki had taken from them the Tesseract. He had fled with it, bringing their base to the ground behind him. Countless had been slain or injured in his attack. Brief, fragile lives, pure in their very brevity and simplicity, cut short. It little mattered to Thor that they belonged to the organization he so despised. That they were mortal was what mattered to him, and that they were meant to be protected.

He thought of Jane, the strength of her tiny hand and the leaping fire in her eyes, her convictions, the ferocity with which she held them. And he saw the all of Earth through the lens she'd given him. He saw them as beings like her. And when he thought that she might just have easily been among those killed, he became angry.

After that last attack, Loki was lost to their sight. Heimdall could not find him and, in a rage Thor demanded what good a Watchman was who didn't watch. His father expelled him from the rooms where he took counsel.

Sullenly, Thor gripped the haft of Mjolnir and set his jaw and paced across the halls, forward and back, little seeing them, waiting on what word would come.

And it came, nearly a day later. Loki had been found, still on Midgard, in a land called Germany. In sign of his disdain for the mortals he crushed, he travelled all but alone amongst them, in his own skin, demanding they subjugate themselves to his rule.

Frigga and Odin were there both when Odin send him to Earth.

A dark radiance came from Odin's hands, like the signature of the magic that Loki and Frigga possessed, but that this felt evil. It dripped and slithered and sent a cold shudder through Thor's body as it encompassed him.

He could feel it building around him, gathering strength for its work.

Odin stumbled, and fell.

Thor lurched towards him, but the spell had already taken effect, it prevented him from crossing its borders.

Frigga caught her husband, lowering him to the ground. She met Thor's eyes and she smiled as a kind of reassurance, "Go," he saw her say, her eyes reminding him of all he had promised her. Then she had turned, beckoning the aid of the guardsman by the door, and the spell had caught him up and in the next instant, he had found himself in the skies of Midgard.

The spell left him before it touched earth, and he would have fallen had he not had Mjolnir already in his fist. Through some lucky twist he managed to catch himself and the hammer bore him aloft on the wind.

The wind was thick and impure, and it writhed with storms and winds unlike those on Asgard. Stilling his mind as for the hunt, Thor sensed a trail. He tested it.

Loki was there. He could feel it.

Thor closed his teeth. And he followed.

Soon enough, he'd caught sight of the craft, and then he'd caught up to it.

He let Mjolinir drop him onto its roof.

There was a door in the back of the vessel. Thor forced it. Tearing it off he saw his brother. Loki cringed away from him. There were others with him, those who had captured him, but while he noted their presence, Thor paid them no mind.

Taking the space between them in two steps, Thor took him by almost by his neck and drew him up, tearing the restraints that the mortals had placed on him from the wall to which they clung.

He met Loki's eyes from one moment, and one moment only.

Then he flung the both of them from the back of the ship.

He let them fall through the damp of the clouds. Then, when they were mere yards from the surface, he cast his brother from him, throwing Loki onto his back against the ground atop the cliffs below.

It was high time he had words with his brother.


	12. Chapter 12

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" the one called Banner asked.

Thor did not turn. He stood where he had, with his back to the screens Fury had provided throughout what interrogation the Director had conducted on his brother.

It was Loki's voice. Loki's way of twisting words and spinning them together.

But Loki was not as he had been.

Father was right. He had been broken within the Void.

Thor had seen something of the old Loki on that mountain. If only they could speak once more. Face to face. But Thor feared that the time for it was gone. Had they been left alone, it might have ended there.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," the soldier stated. "So, Thor. What's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor said slowly, turning to meet the searching eyes of the warriors there gathered. "They're not of Asgard nor of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army?" the soldier asked him, "From outer space."

"So he's building another portal," Banner figured, "That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor felt a quick dropping pain in his heart.

"He's an astrophysicist," the doctor explained.

"He's a friend."

Earth's heroes were gathered and moved like pieces on a game board by their Director. Thor fidgeted, walking along the walls of the main control deck, feeling restless and out-of-place. Coulson's arrival was a welcome distraction.

Never had he expected to see the little man as a friend among strangers.

He showed him a picture of Jane.

She was even more beautiful than Thor had remembered.

Gazing at the image, he recalled the touch of her hand, the ferocity of that kiss. He had despaired of ever returning to her world, and yet, here he was.

Briefly, he thought to leave this and go to her. But it had been such a long time, and he had no assurance that she would want to see him. And besides, his movement would do naught but draw Loki's eye and weaken Earth's heroes. When Loki did launch his attack, they would need his help. Earth had never seen such enemies as these. Thor had.

"She'll be safe there," Coulson assured him.

Thor gave him a slight smile.

He regretted that ever he had been such a fool. Better that he had never come here. It was his banishment here that had drawn Loki's attentions to this Realm. Had he been less the fool, he might have averted all that was likely now to come.

"In my youth," he confided to Coulson, "I courted war."

"War," a new voice interrupted him, "hasn't started yet."

Thor turned and he saw the Director.

"Do you think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know," Thor said helplessly, "Loki's mind is far afield. It's not just power he craves. It's vengeance, upon me," he remembered still the contact of the Destroyer's hand across his face, the feeling as his ribs crushed, and he said bitterly, "There's no pain that would prize his need from him."

"A lot of guys think that," Fury countered, "until the pain starts."

Fury was blocking his way forward, and Coulson from behind. Thor was reminded that while Coulson might be his friend, he was Fury's man first, and he set his teeth. "What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking," the Director bit out, "What are you _prepared_ to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner."

"Then why do I feel like he's the only one that wants to be here?"

Thor recalled how easily Loki had let himself be taken.

His heart sank to a cold pit deep inside of him. Loki was planning something.

And, looking out on the swirling black and purple clouds amidst which they floated, Thor was unsure that he would have the strength to do what it was he very well might be called upon to do.


	13. Chapter 13

Groaning, Thor turned onto his back.

The sun shone warm and relentless on his face. The smell of earth and crushed grass was all around him. Brushing the dirt off his face with one hand, Thor pushed himself up. Carefully, he got to his feet and climbed out of the trench he had made when he had fallen. He did not look up into the sky for Fury's fortress. Should they survive Loki's attack, they would have to do so on their own. He was of no use to them.

He set out doggedly across the grass.

So easily. Loki had tricked him so easily. Effortlessly, he had slain Coulson. And he had pushed the button that would send Thor to what could easily have been his own death.

 _"Are you ever_ not _going to fall for that?"_

Once again, he had overestimated his ability. Once again, he had been cast down.

He had never thought that any of this was possible.

He could sense Mjolnir. It was close, this time. He remembered the last time – waking in the dark, the sand.

He remembered Jane. The softness of her hand. That last desperate kiss.

He remembered returning to his home and all he had found there, when _home_ was supposed to be the prize at the end of the trial. Not the beginning of it all.

As he walked, searching for his weapon in the tall, swaying grasses of Midgard that were baking and sweet-smelling in the heat of its sun, he remembered how his father had called to him, and had told him that his brother was alive.

 _"Promise me you will give him a chance…Bring him back to me."_

For the first time, he truly doubted whether he could.

Mjolnir lay, bedded in the tangled grass.

Reaching for it, Thor stayed his hand.

If he could fall so easily…If he couldn't save even his own brother…If it had truly been his folly that drove his brother to madness…What worth could he have?

Looking at his own hand, and at the haft of the hammer where it lay, he recalled his banishment and how he had gone with Jane to retrieve it. How little he had known, then. How little he had understood.

For one moment, he stood. He feared that Mjolnir would no more obey his call than that of any other, and in that moment he was unsure whether that was not right. Perhaps the power ought to go to one who knew rightly what was to be done with it.

But he could not stay forever. He put out his hand and closed it bout Mjolnir's handle.

Above him, storm clouds gathered in the once-clear sky, blocking the sun.

He lifted Mjolnir high and the sky cracked with lightning.

He was Thor. God of Thunder.

Electricity flickered through his blood and his aches – of body and mind – left him. He would go. He would find his brother and the Tesseract. And he would bring them home.

In a surge of energy, Thor took to the sky.


	14. Chapter 14

"We're not finished yet."

Earth and her heroes had proven themselves that day, though the battle had been unkind, and foreign to them. Thor regretted that Asgard had not been able to send more besides himself. He determined to counsel his father to speed the rebuilding of the Bifrost with all possible resources.

Loki had led the Chitauri to Earth. Though the Chitauri were no more, surely their way had been marked and another of like force might come. Earth must this time be ready.

These heroes had proven themselves a force worth reckoning with. They were worthy, both as allies, and as friends.

Thor had forgotten, almost, what it was to have sword-companions. He had left the companionship of the sword-brethren of his youth when he had been banished to Earth. And now he had found new ones, when he had come to Earth of his own will as her protector. It seemed fitting in its own way.

But Loki was still to be dealt with. Loki was his with whom to deal, though he shrunk from the task. Loki had been his brother, for all his disavowal of family tie.

 _"I'm asking, what are you_ prepared _to do."_

No one had seen him after Barton's arrow had thrown him within Stark's fortress.

Stark had roused his suit against the counsel of the others and flown ahead of them. Romanoff had ventured that, "He's been visible this entire time. My guess is that he's…" she'd glanced at Thor, and pressed her lips together, "compromised."

"Maybe," Rogers allowed. "But we can't take that chance. We can't let Stark face Loki alone."

Rogers' face fell for one moment, and Thor knew that he was remembering Coulson – the agent had been the last one, besides Thor himself, who had faced Loki unaided in this battle. Then the moment passed and Thor said. "I will let no harm befall him."

As he said it, for one breath, he was unsure of whom he spoke.

Moments later, he strode beside the man through the halls, not-quite listening as Stark babbled about protocols that had been breached and how it was a wonder the elevators still worked and he couldn't wait to be over with this once and for all so he could take a bath.

Thor was listening for something else. Anything else.

Then they found him.

Stark said he'd thought so, this was the only window on the Tower that had been smashed. He used the speakers on his suit to give their location to the others.

When they arrived, Stark told them they could stand down.

Thor was not listening.

He stood, watching.

Loki was dragging himself from the rubble. Then he paused – he sensed a change. He turned his head.

"If it's all the same to you," he said, the shadow of a grim smile on his face. "I'll have that drink now."

For one moment, Thor only stood. Then he stooped and he took Loki's shoulder, dragging him, protesting, to his feet and out of the rubble.

"Woah," Stark said, "There he is. Easy there, Thor-Buddy. This floor's already a mess."

Thor ignored him.

Loki swayed.

"Can you stand?"

Green eyes lifted, contrasting sharply with the blood on his face and the darkening bruises. A cockeyed smile split the skin of his lower lip and it beaded with blood. "Rather not." He shook off Thor's supporting hand, but Thor put it back, to restrain him, should it come to that.

"Yup," Stark said. "That's him."

Loki's eyes lost focus and he blinked as though to clear them.

Thor watched him, concern flickering in his breast, but he said nothing.

"Is," Rogers pointed, out of breath, "he all right? Should he be standing?"

Thor looked at Loki, then shrugged. "He will heal."

Loki bent, suddenly, under Thor's hand, and he vomited blood onto the floor.

"You sure?" Rogers asked.

Thor shrugged one shoulder.

Drawing a long breath, Loki straightened.

The sticky pool at their feet was made up of reddish-brown liquid, nothing more.

"You know what?" Stark decided, "I never liked this floor that much anyway." He snapped his fingers. "All right team. Let's take him up top for collection."

No one else seemed to have energy sufficient to say anything.

"Don't all run out at once," Stark muttered.

"Are you," Thor stepped closer to Loki and put his other hand to Loki's shoulder. He did not lower his voice. What he said the others ought to hear, "sufficiently well to walk?"

On nearer inspection, Thor could see that Loki was shaking. His breaths were labored.

After a pause, he lifted his head. His eyes flashed. They met Thor's for one moment, then he pushed past Thor, giving himself up to the Avengers.

Loki was seated in the Quinjet that SHIELD sent. The Avengers followed, to escort him to SHIELD's nearest holding facility.

"You're not gonna get sick all over _this_ floor, too, are you?" Stark asked. "Because, if so, I'm upgrading. Not that it's personal, or anything, it's just that it makes me queasy."

Loki's head lay back against the wall behind him. He didn't answer Stark. He closed his eyes.

Thor did not look over as he answered. "There's nothing else in his stomach, Stark. He hasn't eaten in days."

The others looked at Thor. Loki did not move.

"Okay." Stark decided. "Fair enough."

Nothing else was said on the flight.

Thor walked Loki, holding him by the upper half of one arm, to the cell in SHIELD's facility. He was recovering quickly. Already, Loki could stand and move more easily. No words passed between them.

 _What more_ , Thor thought grimly, _was there to be said?_

"Should he speak," Thor cautioned the guard, "ignore him."

Then Thor left him there.

His mortal allies slumped in the entryway. All except Stark. A uniformed woman was talking to him. He was answering, "I understand what protocol is. And I'm _telling_ you, that we have alternate plans. So if you could _not_ step all over my rights as an American citizen – Cap, back me up –"

Thor didn't rightly know what he was listening to.

He was tired to the marrow of his bones.

"Good." Stark's voice jolted against his ears. "Let's go."

And Thor realized that that last had been directed at him.

"…Go?" he asked. "Go where?"

"Schwarma." Stark answered shortly. He turned to leave, "Eat like a hero."


	15. Chapter 15

It was several days after the battle that finally all hurdles were cleared, and the humans allowed Thor to take both his brother, and the Tesseract home.

The days had passed him by in a sort of haze. The sun rose, the sun set. Meals were placed before him. He was urged to attend others of SHIELD's payroll as they moved through legalities, some whom he recognized, some whom he did not. Occasionally one would speak to him directly. He spoke as little as he could.

Periodically, he would find himself drawn to the monitors trained on Loki's cell.

Loki did little. He sat cross-legged on the bed that was positioned against the back wall, and he watched the grill before him. He did not move, and Thor would have thought him asleep, save for the still-bright glittering of his eyes. No expression crossed his face, or what was visible of it, above the muzzle.

When Stark had suggested the muzzle, Thor had woken from his stupor. Without a word he had gotten up from the table at which they were all seated, and left the room.

Fury had followed him. Had promised him that – if there was another way to convince the Council, he would've taken it. Thor did not refuse his consent, but he would not return to the table. He'd gone back to the rooms that SHIELD had granted him until he was to be allowed to return home. He'd sat on the bed, and, wordlessly, he'd stared at the far wall. He'd seen memories of things long gone, and voices lost.

When the time had come to put the muzzle on Loki, hours later, someone had come to fetch him. Loki's cell could not be opened without him present, they said. They were very sorry to ask it of him. Summoning Mjolnir, along with his armor, Thor spoke no word, but followed.

Loki had offered no resistance. He only watched them. The fluorescent lights made his eyes show alarmingly green in the dark hollows in his face. His eyes flickered over them. They lighted on the silver metal. Then his mouth quirked up in the one corner and he let his eyes slip away, giving the softest breath of a laugh. He said nothing.

Thor could not bring himself to watch as they did it.

He left with the others when it was done. Not once had Loki looked to meet his eyes.

The first time Thor saw him with the muzzle on, it was in the monitors, and it made him sick to his stomach.

They did not force him to accompany them when they brought Loki out of his cell that last day. He had gathered in the company of the heroes of Midgard with whom he had allied himself. Rogers, Stark, Banner, Barton, Romanoff. In the light of Midgard's sun –

(He remembered the first time he had seen that sun, stumbling out of the hospital in New Mexico. He remembered Jane. He remembered all his foolish ideas of going home.)

In the light of Midagard's sun, the haze had dissipated, if briefly. Here were others who knew something of his plight. All these had been touched by Loki's attack, and all prevailed. All of them had lost one near and dear to them. The night before, as they celebrated on an undamaged floor of Stark's Tower, Rogers had confided to him the loss of his dearest friend, lost so many years ago in battle during Midgard's second world war. Thor had felt in him understanding, and an offer of true friendship. For the first time since it all had begun, Thor had felt himself truly begin to smile.

SHIELD had not asked that he abandon the company of his allies. They brought Loki to him, at a place he told them would be suitable for their egress.

Selvig had met them there as well. He brought a contraption he had created that would control the Tesseract's peculiarities, and send them home by its power with no damage to the surrounding environment. It was smaller than the one Loki had had him create, meant, as it was, only to lift the two of them, but it was also safer. It bore within it none of the inherent flaws Loki's design had contained.

When Selvig had shown him, Thor had at first been confused. Even he could see the obvious errors, how was it that Loki, with all his years of study, and his constant striving for perfection, had neglected it? Thor had let the questions go, grateful at least that such errors had allowed them their victory. He'd shown Selvig some things that he ought to alter, and the man had babbled excitedly, the mechanisms of what it was he had failed the last time to accomplish sliding home inside his brain.

Thor had taken the thing in his hand, that day, with the sun warm on his shoulders, and he'd bidden Selvig, and the others, farewell.

Then he had taken his brother home.

He had taken Loki to the Great Hall, where their father was awaiting them.

He left Loki there.

Leaving the Tesseract in the Vault, Thor went out, with long strides, taking the stairs three at a time until he'd broken once more out into the air, and the light of Asgard's sun, and the wind that came off the water.

He put his hands on the stone, feeling the sun's heat draining out of it and into his palms. He drank in long breaths, like a drowning man only just come up for air.

He could hear the wind as it fluttered the surface of the distant water. He could hear it in the leaves. He could hear the sounds of the birds, and the low murmur of many voices, far away. Punctuating the hum, from the direction of the training fields, he heard the clang of weapons.

The place in his side had healed, but he touched it, absently, with his hand.

After some time, he left his station on the wall, and he walked. The paths were familiar, and his feet took him where they would, his face dark and his mind over-spent from his journey, reeling out on paths he could not explain.

The sun was setting when his mother stopped him, with one feather-light touch of her fingertips against his arm. Rousing himself from the pillar against which he'd leaned, Thor blinked at her.

"I didn't –"

He'd meant to say that he hadn't heard her come. The words fell away at his approach and try as he might, he could not recall them.

Her face softened into a smile and her hands folded about one of his.

Letting a smile just bend his lips, he squeezed her hand.

Freeing his hand from one of hers, she put it on the back of his neck and pulled him down. She pressed her lips to his forehead. "You did well," she whispered. "Go now. Rest."

Releasing a long breath, Thor could find no word. He nodded his head.

She let go of his hand.

He went to his rooms, mechanically. He let the door fall closed behind him. The silence and familiarity of the rooms dropped over him like a shroud. He lay down and slept dreamlessly until sometime at what he judged to be the very beginning of dawn, when he got up and removed his boots and his armor. He washed himself as best he might with little time and less inclination, and lay down again to sleep.

It was nearly sunset again by the time he rose.


	16. Chapter 16

The sun was low in the sky when he woke. But Thor knew he would not sleep again from some time. There was much work to be done.

And little peace to be had, beside.

He rose from his bed and walked through the caramel light of the open window. He washed and dressed, and, taking the least trodden path, he went to his father.

"You have returned weary, my son," Odin said.

"I have had what rest I require," Thor answered. "What of the Bifrost and the seven other of the realms?"

"You will take no time for leisure, now that your victory is won?"

"What I gained us," Thor told him, "was the victory of one battle. I will take time for leisure when the threat of war is gone."

Odin did not answer, and when Thor turned to look at him, his father was regarding him with an expression that Thor was unsure he had seen before.

"What?" he asked.

Odin gave the merest breath of a smile. "You have grown well," he said, simply. "You shall one day make this realm a great king."

Thor could not explain why that did not please him. He felt his father expected it to please him, and that he ought to make some answer. For lack of a better one, he bowed his head.

"Do not be over-troubled, my son," Odin said gently.

Thor looked at him.

"As you said yourself," one side of Odin's mouth rose in a grim smile. "Your struggle on Midgard was merely one battle, in a much-larger war. There is yet time for much that may change." Leaning on Gungnir, Odin straightened in his throne.

Thor felt that it was great strain for him, and, not for the first time in this past year, Thor was afraid. "Shall I get someone?" he asked, after a moment.

Odin eyed him, "A healer?" he gave a grim chuckle, "No, Thor. This is no illness. It is merely that I ache with aged wounds, as all men do who are old."

Bowing his head, Odin thought. Then he raised his chin and his eye flashed in the dimming light of the hall. "You would have orders?" he asked.

"I would."

"Then," Odin drew a long breath, "you shall have them. At dawn."

* * *

 **If you want the next step of Thor's development - I didn't feel it was hugely pertinent HERE - it'll be showing up in my fic 'A Little More' chapter 27. It's not published yet, but I'd expect it up by the end of the week. As long as you've been following Thor's journey, you shouldn't need to read the rest of 'A Little More' for that chapter to make sense.**


	17. Chapter 17

Battles raged across realms. Thor travelled from one to another, leading the AllFather's men where he had to, and lending his strength where leadership was sound.

Gradually, gradually, over the space of a year, they were beginning to win back the peace that had reigned in the realms during Thor's youth. The peace was not so long forgotten in those two years. Asgard's warriors had much aid from the inhabitants of the realms they came to.

The realms fell back to their old peace like a river falling back into its old bed.

Thor did not.

Even as the list of cities left to be won dwindled smaller and smaller, Thor was troubled. In the midst of battle he could lose himself, become part of the mingled drive of bodies, the screaming, sweating struggle. He could become the lightning that coursed through him and found its outlet through Mjolnir's swing. There was a kind of peace for him in that. A peace rooted in his ability to effect change – in his belonging to the common cause.

When the weariness fell away, the restlessness came over him again. He paced throughout the camps, and when confronted, he would smile a weary smile, and he would leave them. He would return to Asgard for his next assignments, and then he would be off again.

He liked least of all to be home. He told his mother it was due to a desire to see peace reestablished throughout the realms, but she knew that it was something more than that, and she told him so, with that little smile that Loki had learned from her. Thor knew that she was right. Asgard was no more his home. It was haunted by the ghosts of his past, some benign, and some less so. The less benign he sought to outpace by his work. The others, he did not know how to touch. He did not know how to tell her.

He longed for the old days of peace, when he had been no more than an arrogant boy who fancied himself a man. But at the same time he knew that he could never go back to that. Nor would he truly wish to. Never again would he do that harm that he had so witlessly enacted in those days. His recklessness begged penance. Penance he paid with every resting beat of his heart.

When the evening fell and he walked along the newly forming Bifrost, or among the tents or on the bare heights of realms, he would look at the starts, and his heart would speak plaintively of the times before he had understood their grandeur.

Jane Foster had taught him much. As he walked beneath the stars, he remembered her. He remembered her smile, the way she laughed and the quick reflexive grasp of her hands that was almost a snatch when he'd offered her the notebook SHIELD had taken from her. He remembered how small she had been, standing beside him. He recalled his surprise the first time she had shouted at him. He remembered how she had leapt up to kiss him, just before he'd left. He remembered her demand that he come back to her.

He recalled Odin's words, that the woman his heart longed for was only mortal.

He thought of the brevity of the life laid out before her. Of the wonder and potency she would imbue those few years with. Hers would be an existence short and sharp and powerful, like the lightning that answered Mjolnir's call. Nothing like these long, dragging days that he knew.

He couldn't go to her. He couldn't rest. Not until he had cleaned up what was left of the mess Loki had made.

He had made.

If he had not been such a fool, perhaps…

That 'perhaps' lay down a road he dared not follow. What he had done, he had done. There was nothing that could be done to alter it. Only the penance that must be paid.

Looking at the sky, he thought of Jane.

It had been two years. Mortal lives were so short. She would have forgotten him. Or at least she would have moved on and found one who could love her as she deserved.

He thought of the feeling of her tiny hand – so strong for a mortal – in his own. It had been she, among all others, who had believed in him, when he was nothing. Perhaps even she had loved him. And in another world, another time, it could have been different.

But not here. Not now.

His destiny was bound on a darker road. A road he'd never thought he'd have to walk alone.

Sif and the Warriors Three had been his truest companions – after his brother. But he could not go to them for solace. They had no comprehension of the loss that haunted him. They looked after him in confusion and apprehension. He could not answer them. Their laughter and concern were part of his past. A past he could never return to and they could never outgrow. Sometimes, he found in his deepest heart that he hated them. Hated them for their inability to see the world as he saw it now. Hated that he could no longer join them.

It was the lack within himself he hated, more than anything he saw in his former companions. He knew this. But the knowledge of it did little to sate the burning ache in his chest.

He thought as little of his brother as he might. He had lost Loki long ago.

So he walked alone, among the tents or the trees, and he looked at the stars. He longed for battle, where he could lose himself again, and forget. He longed for the days of his past innocence that could not be recalled.

The battle here, on Ria, was won. Had been, for hours. He knew he ought to go home. He'd neglected his home these past months, choosing instead his orders from hearsay of violence. He knew Sif and the Warriors Three did battle on Vanaheim.

He ought to go to Asgard to take his orders from the AllFather.

But he could not bear to go home.

Not yet.

"Heimdall," he called, softly, gripping Mjolnir in his fist. "When you are ready, I would be taken where our people most need me."


	18. Chapter 18

_**The Dark World**_ **starts here. Forewarning: I'm taking liberties with the script. Further notes/explanation below.  
**

* * *

"Perhaps next time," Fandral tipped his blade, "we should _start_ with the big one."

Thor walked with Hogan across the subdued battlefield and toward the fringe of the pine forest. The sounds of the work yet remaining faded behind them.

Hogan did not burden him with witticisms. Hogan did not burden him with longing eyes. Thor felt more peace with Hogan than with the others. Thor knew that the Van longed to be returned to his home, and while he was loathe to be separated from this friend, he knew it was time that he make return for all the service Hogan had made to him.

"Where do we go next?" Hogan asked.

"Hogan, the peace is nearly won across the Nine Realms," Thor answered. "You should stay here and be with your people, where your heart is."

As they walked, they drew farther from the people, and nearer the wood. Broken stone structures both of current home and of ancestral ruin littered the ground. The sounds of marauders gathered and wounded sought was muffled by distance and by the barriers of moss-crumbled stone.

Hogan had not answered. When Thor raised his head he watched as the Van looked out across the land. "And where the darkness soon may gather," he said.

Thor glanced at him. "You speak in riddles, my friend," he admitted. "I do not understand you."

"The Convergence nears," Hogan told him. "Our elders tell stories of the violence that befell my people during the last occurrence."

"It was instrumental to the Svartalf War fought by my Grandfather," Thor said, idly remembering the story, lifting his face to the sun. Mjolnir was a solid weight in his fist. It balanced him, gave him stability. "So caught-up was I in this campaign," he mused, thinking back across the past year, "I had no idea that it was so near upon us."

The thrill of battle was still in his blood. The sun was warm on his face and the breeze light. He knew it would not last.

"The Dark Realm was always kin to Vanaheim." Hogan said. "The edges of those worlds meet nearly. I shall be glad to be here for the duration of the Convergence, even should the stories be no more than shaman's terrors." Hogan's look was lighter than Thor had seen on his face in many years. He held out his arm, and, facing him Thor gripped it. "You have my thanks," Hogan said.

"As you have mine," Thor answered.

The wind whistled coldly from Thor's left, incongruent with the sun. It smelled of something stale and long-confined. His muscles coiled instinctively. "What is that?"

He heard a sound of movement, far enough from the fringe of the forest's edge that it could not have arrived by normal means. He looked at Hogan, and saw that the Van had loosed his Morning Star, his dark eyes fixed on the place from which the sound had originated.

"It begins," Hogan said, lowly.

Wordlessly, Thor's jaw tensed and he shifted his grip on Mjolnir. He followed his friend's lead across the last yards of the field to the ruin of an old tower.

Beyond, there stood three from which the chill in the air had come. They were creatures the like of which Thor had not seen before, and he had seen many this twelve-month past. They stood the height and shape of a man, but they were white and armored.

As Thor and Hogan came around the stone, they three turned as one.

Their eyes were perfectly round and hollow with no base to them.

"I am Thor,"

Hogan stopped and stood beside him.

"The son of Odin. What business do you have with these people?"

Their faces were each exactly like the other. They held weapons in their hands and as they turned their soulless eyes on Hogan and Thor, Thor knew that they would kill without mercy and without hesitation.

"Fine."

He and Hogan moved simultaneously, as they had all the years they had trained together. The creatures were powerful, but their movements were choppy and disorganized. They moved without a leader.

It did not take Hogan and Thor long to dispose of them.

Smearing dark blood off his face with the back of one fist, Hogan surveyed the bodies.

"They did not seem to have any great awareness of where they were," Thor said. He toed one of the bodies aside, and he saw that their faces were covered with masks, and that that accounted for their horrible likeness to each other.

He wondered if their eyes, beneath the masks, could show fear.

"And they moved as though they had only just woken from a deep sleep..."

He did not understand it as he said it and, perplexed, he raised his eyes to look at his friend.

Hogan met his look with a grim set to his mouth. "It is as I feared."

"I will stay."

"No."

Thor looked at him.

"The Convergence touches all worlds," he said. "Vanaheim first, but Asgard is not free of the Darkness. Go, and warn the AllFather of my fears," he gestured to the bodies, "They are baseless no more."

* * *

 **So, when I started this, it was largely because I wanted to pay homage to a lot of deleted/extended footage that I thought made the story better. Re-making _Thor_ was significantly easier, because I found a script that included most (if not all) deleted/extended footage. I have not managed to find any of that for _The Dark World_. What I DID find, were a lot of previews, a couple deleted scenes not included on the bluray, and a lot of critic's reviews. The critics had a lot of ideas about hoe to make this movie better (Cinema Sins, Honest Trailers and How It Should Have Ended on YouTube have become favorite 'research' engines of mine). I'll try and remember to cite videos/trailers that inspired me along the way. **

**The STRUCTURE of the story will remain the same. I'm just changing a few of the details of how we get there ;)**

* * *

 **THIS chapter was inspired by ONE TINY CLIP from this video: (manually type youtube . come, then paste:** /watch?v=Sx30roCjgT8

 **It's long-ish, but it has a lot of neat interview clips and making-of details. Good music. Lots of scenery from Asgard and - as a bonus - Dark elves in blue comforters -lol. I found a lot of neat moments from this particular video that I will be drawing on in the future.  
**

 ** **The other two details that inspired the changes I've made so far are 1.) a constant critique of the movie was that there was too much exposition. I felt that this introduced the Dark Elves as well as the threat posed by the Convergence in a better way. And 2.) How the HELL did Algrim/Kurse get in with Fandral's band of marauders without being noticed? They sorta glossed over that bit in the movie.****

* * *

 ** **Anyhow - this is how we'll be proceeding for the time being. As it has been this whole time, this fic will only be telling _Thor's_ side of the story. I have other (all be they _smaller)_ alterations evident in my fics _All Rise_ (Loki) and _A Little More_ (Frigga). Because they both follow the canon of the movies you should be able to jump into them at virtually any point and have some idea of where you are. ****


	19. Chapter 19

Thor found his father overseeing the training of his armies from the balcony overlooking the greatest of the palace's many courtyards dedicated to that work. The sound of clashing arms and struggling men was so familiar to him that he barely heard it anymore. Often, Thor had found his father here. It occurred to him that, perhaps, had Odin favored more his sons and less his army, they might none of them be here. But that was a bitter thought, and not one to be entertained. Thor set it aside.

Odin had seen his approach, though the old man gave no sign as he came. He held out a gloved hand and one of his ravens – Hugin or Munin, Thor could never tell which was which – swooped to take landing on it, remaining no more than a moment before it left him for higher climbs. Thor drew up beside his father, watching the flight of the bird.

Odin had attempted – fruitlessly – to teach Thor the way of the ravens' tongue in his youth, and while Thor had cultivated an ear for many tongues, raven had never been his to learn. That strength had been Loki's.

 _Among other strengths_ , something reminded him. It was a memory trying to surface, or a voice. But it sounded like Loki and Thor had no more space in his heart to listen. He drove the voice away, wordlessly planting his feet beside his father. He wondered how he might impress upon his father the dire seeming of Hogan's predictions. In Asgard's fair air they seemed little more than a child's fear. Even so, the stale wind they had carried with them chilled his lungs.

"Is Vanaheim secure?" Odin asked.

Thor rested his fists on the grey stone and watched the men in the training yard below. "As are Nornheim and Ria," he said. "But our work would have gone more quickly with you at the fore."

His father gave a laugh, stale as the winds he'd felt around those creatures. "You must think I'm a piece of bread that needs to be buttered so heavily."

"That was not my intent," Thor said. "Father, Hogan and I, we _saw_ something in Vanaheim. Something that should not have been there."

Odin eyed him, with no expression clear on his face. "Your face bespeaks darkness, my son," he said. "What did you see?"

"It should bespeak darkness for it is darkness I saw. At the last Convergence your father, King Bor,"

Odin's head tilted, curiosity flashing behind his eye.

"defeated the Dark Elves."

"He wiped them out utterly, until only the memory of their name was left to frighten witless children. What of it?"

Thor weighed his words carefully. "He did not wipe out _all_ of them."

Straightening, Odin shook his head. "Madness."

"It is not madness, Father, I _saw_ them, _battled_ them. Three of their kind waged battle on me and Hogan in the aftermath of the fight with the marauders. They would not speak of their purpose."

"That is not what you saw."

Thor closed his teeth and waited, tempering his voice. "What, then, _did_ I see, Father? They matched every picture I have ever seen –"

"In _children's_ books?" Odin snapped. As if only just hearing his tone, Odin lowered his gaze, and he sighed. He turned back to look out over his men. "Dark forces wage war against the universe," he said softly. "They always have."

"Then _let me_ do something about it," Thor insisted. "Tell me what it is I must face, arm me, and our world will again be at peace."

Odin watched his men. For a long moment, he said nothing. "For the first time since the Bifrost was destroyed," he said finally, "the Nine Realms are at peace. They are well reminded of our strength and you have earned both their respect, and my gratitude."

"Thank you."

"Nothing," Odin hit the side of one fist against the stone, adding force to the word, "out of order except your confused and distracted heart."

Within himself, Thor _sighed_. "This isn't about Jane Foster, Father. This is about –"

"Human lives are fleeting," Odin said. "They're nothing. You'll be better served by what lies before you."

Following the indication of his hand, Thor found Sif in the fray below and as his surprise left him he felt his jaw tighten. Only that morning she had been leading Asgard's offence against the marauders in Vanaheim, and now she was sparring with the men as though _she_ required training? What she ought to have done, and what the Lady herself no doubt possessed sense enough to have attempted, was to wash and dress. To _rest_ after her labors. Odin had asked that she be there.

And Thor was sick even unto death of his father's endless political maneuverings.

"I'm telling you this not as the AllFather, but as your father," Odin said.

Thor did not turn from his view of the warriors to face him.

"You are ready. The time has come to take the Throne. Embrace it and celebrate what you have won. Join your warriors, eat and drink. Revel in their celebration. At least pretend to enjoy yourself."

Finally, Thor turned his head, "While this darkness looms to swallow us?"

"Have I not told you?" Odin straightened, his voice hard again, that of the AllFather once more, "our doom is no nearer than it ever has been."

"Then why train the men? Does the Lady Sif need no rest after her labors?"

Odin rested his fists on the stone. "In readiness for war is our strength. You know this."

"And in foreknowledge of the coming danger is our assurance of victory." His voice sounded like Loki's in his own ears. "If you would have me be king –"

"A king," Odin cut him off acidly, "must be seen by his warriors. Would you have them ready for this darkness that frightens you?"

Thor did not let the mockery in his words touch him. "With all of my heart."

"Then train them, Odinson," Odin said. "Train your men."

Thor looked at them a long moment. He glanced at his father, but Odin was in deadly earnest. Jaw tight, Thor gave a stiff nod.

Raising his voice to be heard by all below, Thor shouted, "Let us begin."

Then he leapt over the balcony, soaking the landing and slowly standing to face the startled faces that turned to him. He did not look back on his father. Shifting Mjolnir's grip in his hand, Thor took a fighting stance.

Three of them charged him at once, and though he did not unleash his full strength they were little match for him. When they fell back, there were others, young ones, eager to test their strength against his.

Finally, there were no others that would test him or be tested by him. The courtyard had fallen silent. He could feel Sif's eyes on him. She worried after him. Thor knew nothing that he might do with that worry. She would do better to put her heart elsewhere.

Sweat soaked and hard breathing, Thor turned back to look on his father.

Odin watched him, raven on his wrist and face inscrutable.

It had been a long time since Thor had had to look up so far to view the face of his father, and to find it so blank.

Gritting his teeth Thor turned on his heel and he made for his chambers.

He went quickly and silently, pitying the fool who might stand in his way, but none did. Attaining the blessed silence of his chambers, Thor stripped himself of his armor. He was soaked with sweat, dust-stained and battle weary.

His father would hear him no more now than he had when Thor had been but a child.

The water in the basin moved, liquid and cool about his hand and he cupped some in his palm, smearing it against the back of his neck, under his hair. He splashed his face and tasted the salt as it ran off of him. Straightening, he felt stray drops trickle down his back. A light breeze through the open entry to his balcony cooled him. Here, in the silence, he might begin to think.

"That's all well and good, Loki," a younger voice surfaced in his mind. "But when are you ever going to need to know what it's like? _No one_ lives there anymore."

"Yes," Loki rolled his eyes. Thor remembered him shutting the book and getting up to replace it on the Archive's shelves. "Because you're ever going to _need_ to speak Groot."

Thor looked at him. Squaring his feet, he shrugged, then folded his arms. "I am Groot," he said.

Loki didn't turn, finding the place for the book, "And that means…?"

Thor shrugged again, "If you spoke Groot, you'd know."

Turning over his shoulder, Loki glowered at him.

Thor grinned.

Sliding the book home and turning about with a snap Loki said, "Then I suppose you're not interested in the _least_ in how to get there."

Thor dropped his arms. "No one knows how to get there, even the Bifrost…" he trailed. "Bor had the realm sealed off, from everyone."

Loki gave a slow smile. Then he turned abruptly and started towards the exit.

"Slow down!" Thor shouted after him.

"What?" Loki had grinned over his shoulder, "Can't keep up?"

And then Loki, who had always been the faster runner, had broken into a sprint, and what had begun as a simple summons from Mother, had become a full-on chase through the palace. They had the both of them been in their early teens at the time, well and old enough to have forgotten those old games. And, truth be told, Thor couldn't remember if it had ever happened again.

Shaking off the clinging of the past, Thor went and stood before the open balcony and looked out at the sky. It was beginning to grow dark, but no stars were yet to be seen. He thought of Jane, and he missed her. Missed those days, missed the belief that he might one day be able to go home again.

It had been a long time since Thor believed in a homecoming.

The breeze had dried the water on him and the damp patches of sweat that had collected along his sides and lower back that he had not gotten to were already dry of their own accord. He should bathe before he went to dinner, Norns knew he needed it.

But for a long time, he only stood, and he watched as the darkness began to creep its way up from the horizon.

* * *

 **Okay. Promised explanation to justify my edits. Exposition holds too many big chunks of time in the movie (in my** _ **humble**_ **opinion). I'd prefer to see it sprinkled throughout in dialogue. I hope I've done a little better so far than the movie did. In my defense, Odin likes the sound of his own voice.**

 **Odin's line "dark forces wage war against the universe" can be found if you type in 'filmweb' dot 'pl' and paste this afterwards: /video/spot/nr+3-31978# (wait through the preview they play, and don't worry, the video** _ **is**_ **in English)**

 **It occurred to me recently watching the movie that Sif had** _ **no time**_ **between scenes. Thor comes home, goes to talk to his mom (if you include the deleted scene, which I do, though I had to place it a little differently in the timeline due to the fact that accepting this deleted scene means she has** _ **that**_ **conversation with Loki twice [see chapter 36 of my fic _A Little More_ ]), then is sent by her to see Odin. **_**If**_ **Sif left Vanaheim when Thor did, that gives her a few minutes to regain equilibrium, and then be summoned by Odin to teach some new recruits. It had to be obvious to all concerned what he was playing at.**

 **Thor's line 'let us begin' can be found if you type in youtube dot com, then paste /watch?v=OagPW2navg0**

 **Odin's been experiencing peace so long that I think he's in denial. Possibly he knows he's done some terrible things to make this 'peace' and he can only justify it by denying any threat? Idk. That's my attempt at psychology.**

 **The flashback with Loki is meant to illustrate that Loki is the only one who can get them to Svartalfheim. Heimdal is willing to commit treason (see** _ **any**_ **of the movies), so why not use the Bifrost? It's** _ **clearly**_ **in operation. My theory is that** _ **he**_ **can't, but** _ **Loki**_ **can. (I think there's another preview that hints something like that, but that's buried in my notes and I'll dig it up when it's more pertinent.)**

 **Anyways, hope you're all enjoying, and there should be more shortly.**


	20. Chapter 20

After the feast, Thor accompanied Fandral and Volstagg to a tavern nestled in the heart of the city, at the very feet of the palace. Though it was a place they had frequented together in days gone by, Thor felt no familiarity there. He had not visited the tavern in years. The Barkeep seemed startled to see him. Fandral's and Volstagg's preferences he knew already, and at his question Thor asked only a goblet of wine. Smiling his thanks, Thor took the drink, and he went to join his companions in the places they had chosen.

Volstagg's children had run from home to meet their father, and they nearly overwhelmed him with their affections and their questions.

"What is Vanaheim like, Father?"  
"Can I go with you next time?"

"Where is Uncle Hogan?"

"Amma says you were fighting pirates!"

Gripping his youngest daughter by both wrists Volstagg tipped her backwards off of his leg and caught her back, giggling onto his lap.

Thor watched them from his place, and smiled fondly.

"That was kind of Hlin," Fandral said dryly, "to send the hordes ahead of her. Almost makes you wish the campaign was still going strong."

"Is it done, Uncle Fandral? Are you and Father back to stay?"

Fandral glanced down at the child, "For a while at any rate. We'll have to stop back tomorrow, but that's merely for the sake of formalities. But after that, yes, I expect we'll be home for some time. The Peace is won!" he thrust his goblet into the air as he shouted, and around him, the people cheered.

Thor kept his own council.

In the time it took him to finish his wine, Fandral and Volstagg had drunk nearly a cask between them. Volstagg's children had calmed, and their youngest boy had fallen asleep on his mother's lap. Fandral had a woman on each arm, and any number of others who were all listening in boisterous mirth to his stories.

Once, Thor might have joined them. Once, even, he might have been at the center of the celebration. He might have led them in their reveling. He remembered Loki, utterly disinclined to join them in their festivities, and his own inability to comprehend why. For his own reasons, Thor began to understand.

Settling the empty goblet firmly on the tabletop, Thor thought that that was the fourth time in the past twelve hours that Loki had intruded upon his thoughts. He had striven this past twelvemonth to drive him away. Perhaps there was reason for his resurgence, perhaps not. Thor had neither the wits nor the will to find an answer for his own mind's wandering. Perhaps Father was right, and it was only that he sought battle like a drug to dampen his own misplaced longings.

Wearily, Thor got up from table and bidding Fandral goodnight with a pat on his shoulder, Thor stepped out into the fresh cool of the night.

The Lady Sif accosted him at the entrance. It did not escape his notice how attentively she had dressed, and how she had waited by the door for his coming. He had told her once, a lifetime ago, that he liked her in that gown. At the time it had been no more than a flirtatious game. In the pool of honey-light outside the tavern door in the thin flaking of first-snow, it dragged his already heavy heart.

"There was a time you would celebrate for weeks," she pointed out with a smile.

For the sake of their friendship, Thor smiled back. "I remember that you celebrated the First Battle of Hyrokkin so much that you nearly started the Second."

"Well," she said, "The first was so much fun…"

She tipped her chin up as they both smiled at the memory.

"Take a drink with me," she said, suddenly.

Thor drew away.

"Surely the AllFather can have no further task for you tonight," she pursued.

"This is one I set myself," he answered.

Sif's eyes dimmed with disappointment, though their edge was not softened. "It does not go unnoticed that you disappear each night," she said. "There are nine realms. The future King of Asgard must focus on more than one."

Thor gave her a slight bow, gauging his words carefully as he thought of Svartalfheim, closed off for so many years, thought of Earth. "I thank you for your sword," he said, "and for your council, good Lady Sif."

He left her there, standing at the edge of the pool of honey-light, on the fringes of the festive sounds within. She would share this burden with him, should he ask it, he knew this. And that, gladly. But he could not ask it of her. How could he lead her loyal heart down a path he could not see the end of? No, this was a path he must walk alone. Until the end of his days, should Fate so ask it.

He skirted the stables, leaving his horse within to its rest and the refreshment of sleep. In the fresh, cool air, he made his way on foot across the city, and down the narrow bridge of the Bifrost that stretched across the water to Heimdal's lonely post. Thor relished the quiet after the press and the noise of the tavern. Again, he remembered how much he had once loved that noise. He wondered how it could be, that some part of a person could be so lost, and he wondered if it might ever be recalled. He wondered, if that change were offered him, if he would take it.

"You're late."

Drawing up behind the Watchman, Thor gave a weary smile. "Merriment can sometimes be a heavier burden than battle."

"Then you're doing one of them incorrectly," Heimdal said.

Thor inclined his head, "Perhaps," he allowed. "How fare the stars?"

"Still shining," Heimdal answered. Not once did he turn his head from his view of them. His terrible privilege. "From here I can see nine realms, and ten trillion souls." He drove the Bifrost sword deep into the control panel where it was housed, glancing at Thor. "You recall what I told you of the convergence?"

"Yes, the alignment of the worlds," Thor said, all of his questions bubbling to the forefront of his mind. Where his father would evade, Heimdal would gaze to the heart of a thing. Odin's knowledge was deeper, but Heimdal's would be _shared_ and what good was knowledge if it was horded like the deepest longings of the heart? "It approaches, doesn't it?"

"The universe hasn't seen this marvel since before my watch began. Few can sense it, even fewer can see it. But while its effects can be dangerous," Heimdal gazed into the depths of space, his golden eyes softening like a man gazing at something he deeply loved. A twinge pricking his chest, Thor followed the look, "it is truly beautiful."

"I see nothing," Thor admitted.

"Or perhaps," Heimdal said, a teasing note just edging into his voice, "that is not the beauty you seek?"

Thor gave a soft laugh. He let his curiosity win out, for only a moment. "How is she?"

If he could not be _with_ her, then at least he would that he knew she was well, that his efforts at strengthening the peace would not go for naught.

"She is quite clever, your mortal," Heimdal said. "She doesn't know it yet, but she studies the Convergence as well. Even…"

Abruptly, Heimdal's voice lost its warmth. Thor's blood ran cold. "What?"

"I can't see her."

Thor looked at him, but Heimdal only continued to stare into the space before them. "Heimdal," he said, "send me to Earth."

"She…" Heimdal said, like a man trapped in a dream, or an oracle, "is not on Midgard."

Summoning Mjolnir from its place, Thor felt his armor wash over him. "I would have you send me to the last place you saw her."

Heimdal broke his gaze away, glancing at him, his mouth taught. "It may be nothing," he said.

"And it may be anything else, Heimdal, please."

Heimdal gave him a long look, then nodded, stiffly. He lifted the sword, twisting it in its place.

Thor readied himself.

Heimdal drove the blade home, and the Bifrost took him.

* * *

 **Any additions to this chapter are my own. Sorry there's nothing too original about this one. The next chapter should be up shortly ;)  
**


	21. Chapter 21

Stone slammed under his feet and the light dissipated. Thor's anxiety surged, twining with the atmosphere of Midgard, tugging at him. He hadn't the presence of mind in that instant to unlace the two, and the storm roared. Rain pelted down.

 _Jane_.

He saw her. Small, just as he'd remembered her. She was talking to her friend and she was _safe_. After everything these past two years, Thor didn't know if he could have taken the loss of one more thing.

Relief took his tongue, as well as the immediate use of his limbs. He could only stand, and watch her.

Her friend noticed him first, and Jane followed her look.

Jane's face fell slack. Then she came towards him, like a woman trapped in a dream.

"Jane…" Thor went to her.

Wordlessly, she came.

Then she slapped him.

His cheek stung and Thor drew a little back.

"Sorry," her brown eyes were contrite, "I just had to make sure you were real. It's been a very strange day."

"I am." Thor assured her, "Jane, I –"

The palm of her hand stung across his face again. " _Where_ were you?" she demanded.

"Where were _you_?" Thor countered. "Heimdal could not see you."

"I was right here," Jane snapped, "where you left me. I was waiting, and then I was crying, and then I went out looking for you…" her eyes wandered, then came back to him, pleading, "You said you were coming back!"

"I know," Thor took her thin shoulders in his hands, "I know. But the Bifrost was destroyed. The Nine Realms erupted into chaos. Wars were raging, marauders were pillaging…" he traced a lock of her brown hair between his fingers. "I had to put an end to the slaughter."

Jane's quick expressive face shifted, unwilling yet to let go of the hurt his absence had caused her. "As excuses go…" she allowed, "it's not…terrible. But I _saw you_." She demanded. "You were in New York!"

Drawing her closer to him, Thor realized that his decision was already made. "Jane I fought to protect you from the dangers of my world, but I was wrong. I was a fool. I believe that Fate brought us together. Jane, I don't know where you were or what happened, but I do know…" Her eyes were soft and brown and they had depths unlike anything Thor had ever seen.

"You do?" she asked.

They contained stars greater than those Heimdal bore witness to. They had all the pain and joy of a mortal existence contained in their depth and their vivacity, pain that was so new to him, so strange in a god's heart, "Do what?"

Her brow twitched toward a frown, "What?"

But Thor was drowning in her eyes, and it was a sweet death, a sweet sacrifice that he would be willing to make every day for the rest of eternity.

"Hey!" a voice interrupted and abruptly Thor found his feet of the ground. "Is this you?" Darcy asked. Thor remembered her. She was indicating the rain and, recalling himself, Thor stilled the deluge.

"Uh, we're kinda in the middle of something here," Jane told her.

"Um," Darcy grimaced. "I'm pretty sure _we_ are getting arrested."

Jane looked at the men who were surrounding them, realization mingling with the frustration that lined her brow. "Hold that thought," she said.

Obediently, Thor stayed. Too many times he had overstepped. Sif, Volstagg, Hogan, Fandral, Mother, Father…Loki. He hoped someday those whom he had offended might forgive him.

"Look at you," Darcy eyed him appreciatively, "still all muscle-y and everything."

At a slight loss, Thor thanked her.

"How's space?" she asked, brown eyes twinkling.

Darkness. Marauders. The Bifrost rebuilding itself inch by pained inch as every trip further drained the AllFather's already waning strength.

"Space is fine," he told her.

Nodding her head, Darcy bounced awkwardly on her toes.

Jane was talking heatedly to the man nearest them. His hand came out to touch her arm and something exploded out of her, throwing Jane back across the pavement.

Thor dove to her side. "Jane! Jane," he helped her from the ground, "are you alright?"

Her eyes were dazed, her color drained. Her skin felt cold to his touch. Her eyes sought and found him as he helped her to her feet. "What just happened?"

"Place your hands on your heads," the man insisted. His voice quavered with fear, "Step back!"

Thor put a protecting hand against Jane's back. "This woman is unwell."

"She's dangerous!" the man insisted.

Thor's jaw tightened. "So am I."

He watched as the little man lifted his communications device and spoke into it. He was requesting reinforcements, his voice high and thin and panicked. Thor drew Jane nearer against him. "Hold on."

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Thor looked up at the sky, and he could imagine that Heimdal looked back.

The Bifrost took them between one moment and the next, rushing and pulsing and electric to the skin. Jane cowered against him, small and precious, and he could feel every gasped out breath. She was laughing as she stumbled to a landing beside him in the Observatory.

"We _have_ to do that again!" she beamed. Voraciously, her eyes traced over the ground, the walls, then flickered up and found Heimdal, watching her. She faltered, and she fell back a step against him. "Hi," she said.

Heimdal smiled fondly down at her. "Welcome to Asgard," he said.

Jane blinked at him for a long moment, then looked away – a wondering child. "Wow," she breathed. Then she shook herself, looking back at Heimdal, "I'm sorry – I don't mean to be – just…"

Heimdal inclined his chin. "I understand," he smiled.

"Thank you, Heimdal," Thor said.

"I took the liberty of summoning your horse from the palace, my prince," Heimdal said. "Can the lady ride?"

Thor glanced at her.

Jane wasn't listening. She was peering at the gears that made up the walls.

Heimdal smiled at him.

"Jane," Thor prompted.

She jerked, whirling to face him. "Sorry – I –"

"Can you ride?" Thor asked her, gently.

"Like…" she frowned, "a horse? You guys – you – _have_ horses, right?"

Thor smiled. "Indeed we do, Jane. Many, fine horses. In every way similar to those on Earth."

"Oh," she smiled, "Good." The smile faded, "I…can't ride."

"Not to worry," Thor assured her, "You may ride before me."

She nodded her head, "Okay. This…this," she pointed at something on the wall. Thor squinted, because to him, nothing stood out. She looked at him, indicating the wall with her finger, "is amazing."

"It truly is," he told her, "but we must go, Jane. I have to take you to the healer –"

She turned on him, her face suddenly serious, "To get this _thing_ out of me."

"Exactly."

Jane turned, and Thor thought again how small and how delicate she truly was. She looked up at Heimdal, "Thank you," she said, a little uncertainly, "for bringing me – us – here."

"It was no trouble, my Lady,"

Jane blushed as Thor escorted her out into the darkness without, over the pulsing flare of the bridge to his horse. Glancing back, Jane whispered, "He called me 'my Lady'!"

Thor smiled at her. "You enjoyed your look at the Observatory?"

"Oh my _God_ yes! It's amazing! I can't even _begin_ to – to – comprehend what all of it _means_ and – and this – _what_ is the ground even _made of_?"

Thor helped her onto the horse, then climbed on behind her. "You liked that," he whispered into her ear. Gently, he slid two fingers beneath her chin, tipping it back, "Take a look ahead of us."

Asgard glittered ahead of them, blooming beneath the writhing flames of the stars he had grown up with, resplendent in all its majesty in the dark.

Jane leaned slowly back against him, lost in awe, "Oh my God…" she murmured.

Grinning, Thor drove his heels against the horse's flanks and they galloped through the night towards the palace.

* * *

 **Thor saying 'thank you' to Darcy is from a clip I found. I just thought it was cute. The rest of the alterations were mine. I wanted to see more of Jane being amazed at Asgard, and Thor not really knowing how to explain it to her, because he's so used to all of it. So, anyways, there's my excuse ;)**


	22. Chapter 22

"What's that?" Jane asked. Seven or eight times already Jane had asked Eir or one of the healers that assisted her the same, innocent question. Her movements fractured the image that floated above her.

"Be still," Eir answered.

Unease coiled in Thor's chest and he folded his arms as he watched. "This is not of Earth," he said, softly, to the girl beside him. "What is it?"

"We do not know," she said grimly. She would not meet his eyes. "But she will not survive the amount of energy surging within her."

"That's a quantum field generator, isn't it?" Jane babbled, oblivious to the healer's assessment. Thor watched her, determination rising to face the horror the healer's words inspired. Jane _would_ survive.

Deftly, Eir manipulated the images. "It's a Soul Forge."

"Does a Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?" Jane asked.

Thor watched as Eir paused. She glanced down at Jane. "Yes," she said.

Thor had always known the woman to be distant, brusque. She paused her work for neither conversation nor pleasantries. The only person he'd ever known who had prompted a laugh from her was…

But he'd thought that name too much of late. Jane should be proud of the response she'd prompted. She was strong.

"Quantum field generator!" Jane whispered at him, beaming her success.

Thor smiled. She should be more proud of herself than she knew.

The sound of mailed movement attracted his attention by the door. Two guards flanked the entryway as Odin entered. Head heavy with age, he was stooped, but no less formidable, and, if it were possible, even more stubborn than Thor had ever known him to be. He had not thought to hide Jane's arrival from him. He'd known that to be impossible. He had rather hoped, however, that Odin might take longer in finding him out. Perhaps, even, that the news might have waited for morning.

"Are my words mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?"

Lowering his hands in some affect of supplication Thor pled, "She is ill,"

"She is mortal," Odin snapped. "Illness is their defining trait."

At least Loki's sparring he had enjoyed.

"I brought her here so we can help her," Thor insisted.

"She does not belong in Asgard," his father answered, "any more than a goat belongs at a banquet table."

Jane sat up straight on the table. The healers had paused their ministrations and they stepped away. "Did he just…?" Jane demanded. Then those bright hazel eyes flicked to Odin, "Who do you think you are?"

And Thor was reminded that his father was merciful, as well as sharp. Odin did not strike her on the spot, but merely regarded her for one cold moment before replying, "I am Odin. King of Asgard. Protector of the Nine Realms."

"Oh." Jane had the grace to blush, regaining herself with impressive speed. "Well I'm –"

"I know very well who you are, Jane Foster," Odin interrupted her.

Startled, she glanced at Thor, "You told your dad about me?"

Thor glanced at her, "Something's within her, Father," he insisted. "Something I have not seen –"

"Her world has its healers," Odin argued. "They're called 'Doctors'. Let them deal with it. Guards!"

The men at the door snapped to.

"Take her to Midgard."

"No I wouldn't –" Thor leapt forward, but he was too slow to come between the men and Jane. The power within her lashed out, throwing them back, casting her backwards onto the table. "…touch her." Thor went to her and slid his hand gently beneath her, resting her head, "Jane, are you alright?"

Jane laid back, giving a slight nod. She was conscious, but barely.

Odin moved beside him, his face lined with new concern. Thor let him look at her. Gratitude that at least _now_ he had his father's interest did battle in Thor's breast with the certainty that Odin's attention could only prove the seriousness of Jane's condition.

Odin drew his hand over the bare skin of her arm, not quite touching it.

Crimson lights rose and fell beneath the skin, trailing the path of his hand.

"It's impossible…" Odin whispered.

"The infection…" Eir murmured, "it's defending her?"

"No," Thor said, becoming more sure as he spoke. "It's defending itself."

Odin looked at him, and Thor knew he was right. "Come with me," Odin said, simply. Turning about, he spoke no word to either the healers or his guardsmen. The men followed after him.

Thor glanced after them, then, helping Jane groggily to her feet, he gave a short nod to Eir and her Handmaids. "I thank you," he said. "You've been most kind." He led Jane gently from the room.

"What's happening?" she whispered, her weight a soft pressure against him.

"My father is going to help us."

"That means it's serious, then," she said, her voice only just tinged with fear.

Thor smiled, "Not necessarily,"

She angled her face up to look at him, "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just change his mind."

Grimly, Thor allowed that she was correct.

"But that's a good thing, right?" Shifting, to stand on her own, she turned her little pointed face up to him. "He _has_ to know something."

"Of course."

One of Odin's guards came around the corner just before them and stopped. "This way," he said.

"He sure gets around _fast,_ " Jane grumbled.

"Here, you're unwell. Lean on me."

She snapped. "I'm _fine_."

"I meant no offense, Jane,"

"I'm sorry," she touched the bridge of her nose. "I'm just scared. I'm sorry." Jane's hand found his, and pressed it. Then she pulled away from him.

They found Odin in the center of the Hall of Science, a more popular wing of the libraries within the palace. Thor had often come there to read, as a child. The rooms were brighter than the libraries Loki had favored. The books were more recent and better colored. He had found all he had wanted of knowledge and story within its cheerful light.  
A glowing hologram of Yggdrasil formed the centerpiece of the room, with the realms and creatures that inhabited it as bright baubles in its branches.

Jane tripped over her feet, mouth gaping, as she marveled at it. She fumbled, and Thor caught her, his lips spreading unconsciously in a smile. Even with the weight of Jane's mysterious illness on him, Thor had not been happier since he had returned home those two years ago. Since he'd left her. Watching her as she floundered with her own awe, he thought that he would never leave her again. One way or another, they would get through this.

Odin had removed a book from one of the shelves on the far wall and he opened it on the table before them. Jane tore her eyes from the hologram to focus on it. "There are relics that predate the universe itself," Odin said as they joined him. "What lies within her," he indicated Jane, "appears to be one of them. The Nine Realms are not eternal."

Jane glanced at Thor, afraid. He stepped nearer her.

"They had a dawn," Odin continued, "as they will have a dusk. But before that dawn, the dark forces, the Dark Elves, reigned absolute and unchallenged."

Thor moved next to him, looking at the gilt pages as the images moved beneath Odin's hand. " _Before the Eternal Night, the Dark Elves come to steal your light_ ," he looked at his father, "Mother read us these stories as children. They're not all–"

"Their leader, Malekith," Odin explained, looking at Jane, "made a weapon out of that darkness."

Shutting his mouth like a trap, Thor dropped his eyes. He watched the colors on the page as they shifted.

"It was called the Aether," Odin continued. "While the other relics often appear as stones, the Aether is fluid, and ever changing. It changes matter into Dark Matter, and seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force."

Jane's hand felt cold as he brushed his thumb along the back of it. She turned her palm, twinging her fingers with his. Thor thought of the stale wind, and the three creatures he and Hogun had done battle with in Vanaheim.

"Malekith," Odin continued, "sought to use the Aether's power to return the Universe to one of darkness. But, after years of bloodshed, my father, Bor, finally triumphed, ushering in a peace that has lasted thousands of years."

Jane's curiosity won out over her fear. "What happened?" she asked.

"He killed them all." Odin said.

"Are you _certain_?" Thor asked. "The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, and yet here it is."

Odin looked at him, his eye implacable. "The Dark Elves _are dead_."

"Does your book happen to mention how to get it out of me?" Jane demanded.

Odin looked at her passionlessly. "No," he said. "It does not."

"Then," she lifted one hand like a shrug, and dropped it onto the table. "What do we do?"

"We sleep." Odin said. "Knowledge easily eludes those too weary to chase it. I'm sure Thor will be able to find some place for you to stay."

* * *

 **Anything you don't recognize from the movie is mine. Sorry - again - that this one's not very interesting. The next one should be funnier, at least. And - bonus - I should have it ready to go within the week!**


	23. Chapter 23

Thor found a place for Jane. A small room on the edges of the royal apartments, largely unused, but with a view of the city beneath it. It had been originally used for some sort of servant's quarters, but at such short notice, Thor could do no better for her without causing undue scandal to her name. Palace people talked. And Thor would not have them talking of her more than they already must.

The prince and his pet mortal.

He left her in her room, more asleep than awake on the edge of her bed.

He made it to his own rooms before dropping down onto his bed, for the first time feeling his own weariness. It sunk its teeth deeply into his very bones, drawing away all their strength. The last time he had slept had been in a tent in Vanaheim, with his hand on Mjolnir's haft for fear of ambush in the night. Asgard was a safer place. A haven for deeper rest. Though it remained – as ever – unsafe from dreams.

Thor had always known Eir to be distant, brusque. She paused her work for neither conversation nor pleasantries. The only person he'd ever known who had prompted a laugh from her was…"I was the last person who made her laugh, wasn't I? Probably the first too. Can you even _imagine_ living like that?"

"No," Thor smiled, looking aside at his brother, grateful for what distraction Loki never failed to provide. "I cannot."

"It's an absolutely _worthless_ lifestyle."

Thor's eyebrows twitched as he rounded on Loki, "She's saved _your_ life more times than I could mention."

"Granted." Loki shrugged, "Though that's not what – Oh. _Here_ he comes."

The sound of mailed movement attracted Thor's attention by the door. Two guards flanked the entryway as Odin entered. Head heavy with age, he was stooped, but no less formidable, and, if it were possible, even more stubborn than Thor had ever known him to be.

"We weren't going to hide her from him…" Thor murmured, edging uneasily nearer Jane.

"No," Loki countered, "but it would have been a kindness for the guards to tell him in the morning. For his skin every bit as much as for ours."

Odin had eyes only for Thor. "Are my words mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?" Thor had not noticed before how old his father looked. A night's uninterrupted sleep would indeed have been no bad thing.

Lowering his hands in some affect of supplication Thor pled, "She is ill,"

"She is mortal," Odin snapped. "Illness is their defining trait."

 _"I mean to rule them, and why should I not?"_ Loki whispered. Behind Thor, he gave a low, cutting laugh. Thor didn't understand why the hairs rose on the back of his neck, or why he knew those words. Odin paid Loki no mind, as though he did not even exist.

"I brought her here so we can help her," Thor insisted.

"She does not belong in Asgard," his father answered, "any more than a goat belongs at a banquet table."

Loki laughed outright at that. "Oh Norns," turning in a swirl of his coattails, he leaned back against the table and crossed his arms across his chest. "How long has it been since _that_? I'd nearly forgotten. But Father hasn't," watching Odin critically, Loki traced a bent finger over his lips. "How odd. Am I on _his_ mind?"

No one seemed able to hear him, though Thor did not find it strange that they should not.

Jane sat straight on the examining table, glancing from Odin to Thor, "Did he just…" Then those bright hazel eyes flicked back to Odin, "Who do you think you are?"

Even Loki was silent, eyes wide as he turned them on their father, to see what Odin would _do_ , in the face of such impertinence.

And Thor was reminded that his father was merciful, as well as sharp. Odin did not strike her on the spot, but merely regarded her for one cold moment before replying, "I am Odin. King of Asgard. Protector of the Nine Realms."

"Oh." Jane had the grace to blush, regaining her feet with impressive speed. "Well I'm –"

Loki was laughing behind his eyes. One glance was enough to assure Thor of that.

"I know very well who you are, Jane Foster," Odin interrupted her.

Startled, she glanced at Thor, "You told your dad about me?"

"That's not even the half of it." Loki commented.

Thor glared at him.

Loki put up his hands in mock surrender before folding them once more.

"Something's within her, Father," Thor insisted. "Something I have not seen –"

"Her world has its healers," Odin snapped. "They're called 'Doctors'. Let them deal with it."

"I got Mother's tricks," Loki mused, "But I certainly got _his_ tongue, didn't I? I wonder if he ever _hated_ it, hearing it speak out of my mouth." When Thor turned, frowning, in Loki's direction, Loki was looking at their father, his mouth bent in a smile that cut.

"Guards!"

The men at the door snapped to.

"Take her to Midgard."

"No I wouldn't –"

Everything changed in a flush of black and red.

They found Loki in the center of the Hall of Science, a more popular wing of the libraries than those he had favored on Asgard. Jane tripped over her feet, mouth gaping, as she marveled at it. Thor smiled at her wonder. Even with the weight of her mysterious illness on him, Thor had not been happier since he had returned home those two years ago. Since he'd left her.

Loki had removed a book from one of the shelves on the far wall and he opened it on the table before them. "There are relics that predate the universe itself," Loki told them. "What lies within her," he indicated Jane, "appears to be one of them."

Jane looked at him. She was afraid. Thor touched her hand.

Loki glanced at Thor. "The Dark Elves," he said.

Thor remembered Hogun looking out across the dry plains of Vanaheim. _"So it begins_ ," he'd said. Thor marveled. "They're not dead, are they?"

Loki didn't answer him, "Before the dawn of Time they reigned absolute and unchallenged."

Thor moved next to him, drawing Jane after him to look more nearly at the gilt pages as the images moved beneath Loki's hand. " _Before the Eternal Night, the Dark Elves come to steal your light_ ," Thor looked at him, "Mother read us these stories as children."

"Children are fed truths that adults mock." Loki said. "Malekith," he turned a page, "made a weapon out of that darkness. It was called the Aether. It changes matter into Dark Matter, and seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force."

Jane's hand felt cold. Thor traced it softly and she turned her palm, twining her fingers with his. Thor knew that he had to protect her.

"Malekith," Loki continued, turning the gilt pages, "sought to use the Aether's power to return the Universe to one of darkness. But, after years of bloodshed Bor, triumphed and the Aether was hidden. You," his eyes rose and for the first time met Jane's. His smile had too many teeth in it. Thor felt oddly threatened by that. "Were clever enough to find it."

Thor wanted to step between the two of them.

"You really ought not have left her so long." Loki told him. "They get restless when left…unattended," his teeth flashed wickedly.

"I thought only to…" trailing, Thor shook his head, refocusing on Loki. "What are we to _do_ about it?"

Shaking his head, Loki closed the book. "That," he said, "is beyond me. The book only goes so far as a probable diagnosis."

"You never," Thor fumbled with his hands, Jane forgotten, " _read_ anything? In any of your books?"

"You're interested?" he replaced the book, glancing over his shoulder at Thor mockingly. "Will wonders never cease. Thor, interested in _my_ vault of knowledge."

"Loki, _enough_ ,"

Then the ground shifted.

"Loki, what are you doing?"

Loki glanced from the shelf to him, his brow creased, "This isn't me."

Then the floor fell away.

From far away, he could hear the echo of Jane's voice, _"Maybe they were separate for a reason."_  
In the next moment, he was in a dark library. One of _Loki_ 's libraries. The ones that were too gloomy for Thor's taste, where dust coated the shelves, and some of the books fell to pages on the floor when taken from the shelves. He was a youth, and he faced Loki, who sat in one of his impossible niches in the stone above Thor's head. They'd been talking for some time about Loki's book, but suddenly, Thor asked, "Why do you climb up there, anyway?"

Loki grinned. "People don't think to look up."

"Because there's nothing to _see_ ," Thor grumbled, rubbing the backs of his arms.

Loki's grin widened.

"Well, besides _you_." Thor muttered. "What do you like about this place? The other library's better."

Loki marked the place in his book. "There are older books here."

Thor grimaced, then insisted, "The newer ones are better."

"Not if you like to learn secrets," Loki answered. Then he was in front of him, on the ground. "Not everything is as simple as your _new_ books would have it. Did you ever wonder where all our gold came from?"

"No."

"Of course not. Well, I _have_."

Curious in spite of himself, Thor asked. "What did you find?"

Loki shrugged. "Nothing yet."

Thor spluttered. Then he folded his arms. "Tell me _one thing_ your books actually tell you that I couldn't find in mine."

Loki vanished around the corner of a bookshelf. His voice carried after him. "More about the Dark Elves."

"Why would you want to read about _them_?" Thor asked, following him.

Loki snorted. "They ruled _everything_ ," he said. He looked at Thor over his shoulder. "Don't _you_ want to know how it was done?"

Thor laughed. " _That_ was before there was anything worth ruling."

Loki rolled his eyes, shoving the book home onto its shelf. "That's what _you_ think."

"And since I'm always right…"

Loki looked at him, his eyes on the edge of amusement, like he wasn't sure if Thor was joking or not.

Thor felt himself falter suddenly, as one moment spread and reached for a thousand. He hoped that Loki would understand that he didn't mean to be superior. He meant to be funny. He didn't know why it was so important to him all of a sudden that Loki understand. He didn't understand the quick ghost of regret as it traced an icy hand across his back.

Loki's mouth spread wider as he turned his head away, and he did laugh.

The sudden lightness in Thor's heart woke him.

Shoving the blanket off him so that the cool of the morning air might go some of the way towards bringing him back from that perilous place on the edges of sleep, Thor rubbed his eyes. His dream echoed in his mind, a child's voice, _"No one knows how to get there, even the Bifrost…Bor had the realm sealed off, from everyone."_ And then Loki's, more familiar tones, baiting, _"Then I suppose you're not interested in the least in how to get there."_

The light was thin and watery and it pooled at the foot of his bed where the window opened out to the morning. Thor looked out at it while he let the events of the previous day shake themselves free of the untruths from his dreams.

If only things could have been different.

Absently, he fingered the place where Loki had stabbed him, on Stark's tower. Even the scar had long-since healed. He had not spoken with Loki since that day, nearly a year ago. Wordlessly he had escorted Loki to SHIELD's holding facility. Wordlessly, he had taken him from that place to Odin's throne for judgement. Thor had not seen him since his imprisonment. Twice, he had nearly gone. Once, he had gotten as near as the dungeons themselves, but he had thought better of it before breaching the doors. He knew his mother visited him, but he could not trust himself to do so.

He wondered if things might have been different, if he had.

His feet firmly planted on the ground, Thor hung his head and rubbed the back of his neck. He thought he'd go out. He'd take a walk. Anything would be better than this silence.

* * *

 **Thor has been shown ...twice (does 'Age of Ultron' count?) to experience prophetic dreams. I thought it would be fun to write one into the movie.**

 **Let me know if you like it ;)**


	24. Chapter 24

The air was thin and cool and sweet – a welcome alternative to his dreams. Already, he could feel them swirling away in feverish eddies, replaced by the light and the chatter of Asgard's populace as they stepped out to begin on the business of their day. Children scattered, running across the road and under his feet. Stepping aside, watching them, Thor smiled.

It had been too long since he had been out like this.

It had been too long since he'd been _home._

Walking among his people, Thor moved aimlessly. He smiled when hailed, but he sought none out. As much a relief as the good-natured commotion was, there still loomed over him his shadows. There had to be a way to unravel the machinations of the darkness that overwhelmed him. Jane's illness, at least, must have some kind of cure.

As if she had been summoned by his thought, Thor heard her speaking. He could pick her voice out from the crowd. Easily. He wondered if that was how it always was. He knew he would not ask his father. The time had passed for those conversations long ago.

Thor drew nearer the sound.

Jane was standing in the middle of the road, marveling at a plaything that hovered in the air above her. Its parts were splayed, silver and churning and beautiful as it danced to its own tinkling song. Jane was wringing her hands, oblivious to the children who sat on the side of the road, watching her curiously, perplexed by the adult who was distracted by their toy. She was completely enthralled by it. They likely thought her mad.

And in her own way, Thor supposed, she was.

Fondly, he laughed.

Jane noticed him. "This thing is _amazing_ ," she said, in lieu of a greeting. She pointed at it, her eyes glowing with excitement, "The magnetic propulsion alone would advance Earth Science by decades!"

It folded up with a little sound of bells, and dropped into her waiting hands.

"Uh," Thor closed what space remained between them. "Jane?"

She was worrying the silver sphere between her hands, "I am _so_ taking this apart."

Glancing at the children, bidding them wait but a moment, Thor smiled. "Jane?"

She didn't look up at him. "What?"

He pointed aside at the three. "You have their ball."

Lifting her chin, Jane looked at them. Her head jerked in that little surprised movement he so loved. "Oh," she said. Awkwardly, she offered the plaything back to the children, and when none of them rose, she tossed it to them.

Smiling, they took their ball and they scattered.

She laughed, still embarrassed. Wordlessly, Thor offered her his arm. She smiled, briefly confused, then she put out her hand and she took it. He moved to walk with her along the waterfront.

"You changed your clothes," he commented. She was dressed in a gown unlike any he had seen her in before. She was garbed as one of his people. For a moment, Thor allowed himself to imagine that it might be true. That she might be accepted by his father and be as one of them.

"These were laid out for me," she said, distracted. She gathered the fabric in her hands, "I feel… somewhat ridiculous," she smiled, part-rueful, part-laughing.

"You _look_ stunning," Thor told her.

She blushed and awkwardly, she turned away.

Realizing he'd miss-stepped, Thor scrambled for something else to say, but, mercifully, Jane beat him to it. "I'm completely out of place here," she said.

Thor looked at her sharply, "Has someone –"

"No," she said hastily, talking with her hands, waving them in front of her. "No. No one's said anything. You all – all of you – have been amazing. It's just…your _toys_ are better advanced than anything our _best minds_ can even come up with!"

"You _do_ have those doors that…" Thor moved his hand forward and back.

"Automatic sliding doors?" Jane deadpanned. Seeing his smile, her incredulity gave way and she laughed. Shifting the shawl draped over her arms, she glanced at him. "It's a lot to process."

Looking past her, over the water, Thor nodded. His mind wandered to New Mexico. "I'm sure it is."

When she didn't say anything more, Thor glanced at her. Her brow was furrowed in consideration. "What is it?" he asked. The water lapped against the sides of the embankment some distance below. The sound was soothing.

"When you came for me," she said, feeling it out as she spoke, "You knew I was in trouble."

"Heimdal lost sight of you," Thor answered. "You were no longer on Earth."

She blinked, once, her nimble mind working past her disbelief. "Well how is that possible?"

"I believe you were, and you weren't," he said. They stopped beside the wall, and Thor came around to face her. Her brow creased questioningly, but she said nothing, trusting him to answer every question she did not know how to ask.

Thor took her hand, pressing her palm to his, lining up their fingers as best he could. Her hands were so small against his. "The Nine Realms travel within Yggdrasil," he said, "orbiting Midgard much as your planets orbit the sun. Every five thousand years the worlds align perfectly," his old misgiving nagged him and Hogan's words, "allowing ancient evils to strike." He met her eyes. "We call this the Convergence. During this time, the borders between worlds become blurred, and entities travel more freely through the places where the Realms align."

"You think –"

"I think it is possible you found one of these points." Thor answered her.

"I…" her eyes flicked away, a frown lining her brow, "…don't know that _I_ did find it, Thor." She folded her fingers through his, though she still looked down towards the water. "That…weapon," she flicked her eyes at him, then looked back, down and away.

Thor folded his hand around hers.

She glanced at it gratefully, "…it almost seems like _it_ found _me_. Is that," when she looked at him, her eyes were fearful. "Is that _possible_ , Thor? Could I –" she fumbled, "could it be working _through_ me?"

"Shh," Thor brushed a lose hair from her eyes with one hand. "You heard my father. The Dark Elves have been extinct for centuries."

"You don't believe that," she countered. She was so small, and so afraid. So alive and fierce in her fear.

He bent down, and he kissed her.

Drawing away, he did not look at her. Though she had not objected, he was afraid to see the rejection in her eyes. He opened his hand, drawing her attention back, aligning their palms, then shifting them, slightly – as if the movement could cover his flare of embarrassment, "We're lucky that it remained open," he said, "Once the worlds pass out of alignment, the connection is lost."

When he looked at her, she was watching him. Her eyes glowed. "I…like the way you explain things," she admitted, a slight flush lingering in her cheeks, and Thor couldn't help but feel pleased.

Jane looked away, at their joined hands. "What if it's true?" she asked, abruptly. Her expression had tightened.

"Jane," Thor said.

"No," she snapped. "Don't _placate_ me. What if it _is_ true? There are _so many_ worlds out there and maybe," she blew out a long breath, "maybe it's not right that they should interact. _Maybe_ if I hadn't been looking for you –"

"Jane," Thor gripped her hand more tightly, and she looked at him. He looked deep into her eyes, past the tears that gathered there. "I'll find a way to save us all," he promised.

Her look softened helplessly. "Maybe they were separate for a reason," she said.

The words were an echo. They brought the whole swirling mess of a dream back to his mind with a jolt.

Jane was watching his face, spent with worry, looking to him for strength. "What's going to happen to me?" she asked.

"I'm going to save you," he promised.

Her expression flickered almost listlessly, "Your father said –"

Thor didn't like to see her devoid of her passion. Once, his father had taught him that the greatest way to bolster a man's belief was with one's own. He had been speaking of leading warriors, but Thor had not found the advice to lead him falsely. He bent to meet Jane's eyes more directly, setting aside his own misgivings, "My father," he gripped her hand firmly in both of his, "doesn't know everything."

"Don't let _him_ hear you say that."

Thor knew that his mother smiled long before he saw her face. He wondered what had brought her outside of the palace. It was not like Frigga to venture so far from her gardens of a morning.

Something in the back of his mind whispered _Loki_. And whether it was intuition or merely the lingering touch of his dream, he shoved it aside. "Jane Foster," he said instead, "meet Frigga, Queen of Asgard. My mother."

Jane stepped back from him, freeing his hand. She flicked her eyes from him to his mother and back, flustered and obviously embarrassed. She shifted on her feet. "Hi," she managed, softly.

Frigga's smile was warm as ever, and Thor was glad at least one member of his family could be accommodating.

The alarm startled all of them.

His mother met his eyes, "The prison," she said, vocalizing the threat as he readied himself for it.

As his muscles coiled, Thor's dreams made sense to him. They were a warning of what was to come. The Convergence allowed for all sorts of abnormalities that could serve those who understood them. And if anyone knew how to manipulate something that could only _possibly_ happen once in their entire life, Thor knew which person it would be.

"Loki," he said.

Mjolnir, he had left beside his bed. He sensed the thrum of its energies and called it to his hand.

Jane had stepped instinctively nearer his mother, and Frigga closed the space between them, taking the girl firmly by both shoulders in a gesture protective as it was strong.

He was glad of it.

"Go," Frigga said. "I'll look after her."

Thor said nothing. He gave a grim nod, then turned and, running, let go his cloak and flung himself from the balcony. Mjolnir met him exactly as promised and by its power he hurtled towards the palace.

* * *

 **dun dun DUN - lol.**

 **Okay. Explanation time, for anybody who's interested ;)**

 **That opening scene with Jane playing with the kids' ball is NOT mine. I found it here: Manually type in youtube dot com, then paste this:** **/watch?v=TCTultv_8zI. -It's a cute little tidbit that I think I replicated pretty much exactly. The (minimal) dialogue between that scene and the beginning of Thor and Jane's talk from the movie WAS mine. The talk itself I edited heavily, because so far, I've been trying to give a sense of what's coming - I like Thor having suspicions of what's about to happen, and I like the idea that the Convergence is a dangerous time. Sure, Thor's emotions for Jane might go a far way to eclipse any jitters he's having about prophecies of cataclysmic import, but I don't think it would go so far as TDW would have us believe. In the film, Thor's moping, then Jane comes and he's only got eyes for her, then the Dark Elves come and suddenly there's a problem. Heimdal kinda-sorts warns him about it, but that's about as far as any kind of suspense-building goes, apart from the clips the audience sees of Malekith's antics. The Asgardians' response to seeing a species hitherto believed extinct - not only alive but BLOWING UP THE CAPITAL - is a little too cavalier for my belief. Some little fore-warning rectifies that most excellently ;) MOST of the lines that I added/edited are not mine, but were stolen - by me - from various trailers, teasers, clips and tv spots. For anybody who's interested, here are the ones I remembered to note (which may be all of them. I'm too lazy to check): Manually type in youtube dot come for all three of these, for the first, paste in:** **/watch?v=cOF34wE5_40 -For the second, paste in:** **/watch?v=4jMN-pOVOPY -and for the third:** **/watch?v=7p7rocHEecE**

 **So, for those of you still with me (bless you), what do you think of my edits so far? Let me know, and thanks for reading!**


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